From: Ludovic Brenta on
Adam Beneschan writes on comp.lang.ada:
> On May 24, 7:44 pm, Stephen Leake <stephen_le...(a)stephe-leake.org>
> wrote:
>> Simon Wright <si...(a)pushface.org> writes:
>> > I hadn't come across electric-buffer-list before; I use
>> > mouse-buffer-menu, bound (not by me) to C-down-mouse-1.
>>
>> Ah; invoke electric-buffer-list.
>>
>> A little poking with the elisp debugger, and I found this variable:
>>
>> Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width is a variable defined in `buff-menu.el'.
>> Its value is 26
>>
>> Documentation:
>> How wide to jointly make the buffer name and size columns.
>>
>> You can customize this variable.
>
> Thanks, that's very helpful. I'll play around with it a bit more to
> see if I can really make this work the way I'd like (ideally, setting
> up a key binding that would let me switch this value back and forth if
> needed), but I think this is the main answer.
>
> I'll also think about your suggestion to allow myself a wider screen.
> I think my reluctance has been a throwback to the old days when a lot
> of printouts were only allowed 80 columns, which is itself a throwback
> to the number of characters on a Hollerith card. Here it's 2010 and
> my life still revolves around Hollerith cards. Sigh....... (Then
> again, I'm using a language that refuses to use square or curly
> brackets or some other special characters in its syntax because they
> weren't available on old punch-card machines.)
>
> On the other hand, I probably won't be doing things Simon's way. I
> kind of like being able to keep my hands in one place, rather than
> having to move them to use some sort of rodent-like attachment. But I
> appreciate the input from both of you.

I'm also an emacs bigot and I'm proud not to use the mouse at all from
within emacs. I run ratpoison as my "desktop environment". I
customized emacs not to display any menu bar or toolbar. I limit my
source files are limited to 80 columns; with a wide screen I can do C-x
3 and display two source files side by side on my screen. The buffer
list and the compiler output go into wide windows. That's how I get the
best of all worlds :)

--
Ludovic Brenta.
From: Simon Wright on
Adam Beneschan <adam(a)irvine.com> writes:

> On the other hand, I probably won't be doing things Simon's way. I
> kind of like being able to keep my hands in one place, rather than
> having to move them to use some sort of rodent-like attachment. But I
> appreciate the input from both of you.

The Macbook trackpad is pretty close to the keyboard!

But I must admit to using an actual mouse at work...
From: Warren on
Ludovic Brenta expounded in news:87y6f799pf.fsf(a)ludovic-brenta.org:

> Adam Beneschan writes on comp.lang.ada:
>> On May 24, 7:44 pm, Stephen Leake <stephen_le...(a)stephe-leake.org>
>> wrote:
>>> Simon Wright <si...(a)pushface.org> writes:
>>> > I hadn't come across electric-buffer-list before; I use
>>> > mouse-buffer-menu, bound (not by me) to C-down-mouse-1.
>>>
>>> Ah; invoke electric-buffer-list.
...
> I'm also an emacs bigot and I'm proud not to use the mouse at all from
> within emacs. I run ratpoison as my "desktop environment". I
> customized emacs not to display any menu bar or toolbar. ...
> best of all worlds :)

I'm also an emacs bigot though I've been using MicroEMACS
instead since the days of DOS, Atari-ST and Amiga. It was
also ported to the "then" relevant versions of unix in the
late 80's (I think), when I adopted it. I have since
customized it and ported it to Linux and other modern
*nix. I've also added a few of my own C bugs. ;-) But it
ports well and has a very small footprint, which I like.
It's always my first "install" after loading up a given
Linux distribution.

Ppl have encouraged me to (re)-try Gnu-emacs, but the one
feature that never seemed to work right was the "repeat
last executed operation" operation, that I bind to ^C.
When I tried it last, it mostly worked, but was still
sufficiently busted that I could not switch. It is
probably time for me to try it again (I had reported
something that was queued to be fixed). I use ^C
to repeat the last macro execution, among other things.

The best version of emacs on the planet was Pr1me emacs,
(sniff). I still have my Pr1me emacs manual somewhere
at home ;-)

I also have my .emacsrc set to recognize gnat code and
to make ^X^Z-G go to the source line in error. Thanks to
gnat it even points at the correct statement offset to
the very token (or nearly). I'm sure your Gnu-emacs elisp
code does the same thing. That sure saves a lot of time
when fixing compile issues.

The tools "emacs" and "Ada" -- best of breed IMO. ;-)

Warren
From: Stephen Leake on
Adam Beneschan <adam(a)irvine.com> writes:

> On May 24, 7:44 pm, Stephen Leake <stephen_le...(a)stephe-leake.org>
> wrote:
>> Simon Wright <si...(a)pushface.org> writes:
>> > I hadn't come across electric-buffer-list before; I use
>> > mouse-buffer-menu, bound (not by me) to C-down-mouse-1.
>>
>> Ah; invoke electric-buffer-list.
>>
>> A little poking with the elisp debugger, and I found this variable:
>>
>> Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width is a variable defined in `buff-menu.el'.
>> Its value is 26
>>
>> Documentation:
>> How wide to jointly make the buffer name and size columns.
>>
>> You can customize this variable.
>
> Thanks, that's very helpful.

You're welcome.

> I'll also think about your suggestion to allow myself a wider screen.
> I think my reluctance has been a throwback to the old days when a lot
> of printouts

"printout"? what's a "printout"? :). Save a tree, and the fossil fuel
needed to transport it, and/or the harsh chemicals used to recycle it.
Electrons are recyclable; most other stuff really isn't.

> were only allowed 80 columns, which is itself a throwback to the
> number of characters on a Hollerith card. Here it's 2010 and my life
> still revolves around Hollerith cards. Sigh....... (Then again, I'm
> using a language that refuses to use square or curly brackets or some
> other special characters in its syntax because they weren't available
> on old punch-card machines.)

That's not the _only_ reason, but it is part of it.

> On the other hand, I probably won't be doing things Simon's way. I
> kind of like being able to keep my hands in one place, rather than
> having to move them to use some sort of rodent-like attachment.

"rodent-like attachment"; that's perfect :).

--
-- Stephe
From: Stephen Leake on
Warren <ve3wwg(a)gmail.com> writes:

> I also have my .emacsrc set to recognize gnat code and
> to make ^X^Z-G go to the source line in error. Thanks to
> gnat it even points at the correct statement offset to
> the very token (or nearly). I'm sure your Gnu-emacs elisp
> code does the same thing.

Yes.

Even better is gnat-fix-compiler-error; it automatically recognizes simple
errors, especially style ones like "space required", and fixes them for
you.

I have 'next-error' bound to F6, and 'gnat-fix-compiler-error' bound to
C-F6. So processing compiler errors is often a simple sequence; F6 C-F6
F6 C-F6. It's really annoying when I hit one Emacs can't fix :).

--
-- Stephe