99 lines
4.9 KiB
Org Mode
99 lines
4.9 KiB
Org Mode
#+TITLE: Spacemacs-purpose layer
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* Table of Contents :TOC_4_gh:noexport:
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- [[#description][Description]]
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- [[#features][Features:]]
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- [[#purposes][Purposes]]
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- [[#switch-to-buffer-and-display-buffer][switch-to-buffer and display-buffer]]
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- [[#misc][misc]]
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- [[#install][Install]]
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- [[#usage][Usage]]
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- [[#key-bindings][Key bindings]]
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- [[#caveats][Caveats]]
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- [[#popwin-and-guide-key][Popwin and guide-key]]
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- [[#packages-that-do-display-management][Packages that do display management]]
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* Description
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This layer enables [[https://github.com/bmag/emacs-purpose][window-purpose]], which provides an alternative, purpose-based
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window manager for Emacs. With this layer, your window layout should be robust
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and shouldn’t change too much when opening all sorts of buffers.
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Regular [[https://github.com/m2ym/popwin-el][popwin]] is not triggered when window-purpose is enabled. However,
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the window-purpose layer provides a =purpose-popwin= extension, which
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brings popwin’s behavior to window-purpose and solves that problem.
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** Features:
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- Window layout is more robust and less likely to change unintentionally
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- Dedicate window to a purpose
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- User-defined purposes
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- Extensible window display behavior
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- Empty =purpose-mode-map=, to avoid conflicts with other key maps
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- Replicate popwin behavior for purpose-mode - almost no regression in popup behavior from using window-purpose.
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- Reuses popwin’s settings: =popwin:special-display-config=, =popwin:popup-window-height= and =popwin:popup-window-width=.
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- Difference from popwin: when several windows are open, popup window is sometimes bigger than with regular popwin in the same situation.
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** Purposes
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window-purpose contains a configuration which assigns a purpose for each
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buffer. Later, when Emacs needs to display a buffer in a window, its purpose
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helps make a better decision of which window to use.
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For example, consider the following case: Emacs frame shows three windows - one
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for code, one for a terminal and one general-purpose window. The general window
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is selected and you want to open a code file. How do you ensure that the code
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file will be displayed in the code window? With window-purpose you don’t
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need to worry about it - you open the file and window-purpose places it in
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the correct window.
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Additionally, you can dedicate a window to a purpose - so that window is
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reserved only for buffers that share that purpose.
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** switch-to-buffer and display-buffer
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In regular Emacs, =switch-to-buffer= follows different rules than the other
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switching and popping commands, because it doesn’t use =display-buffer= (which
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the other commands do). With window-purpose, this behavior is fixed. The
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result is a better control over how buffers are displayed, since
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=switch-to-buffer= doesn’t ignore the user’s customizations anymore.
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** misc
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- specialized helm source similar to =helm-source-buffers-list=
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* Install
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To use this configuration layer, add it to your =~/.spacemacs=. You will need to
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add =spacemacs-purpose= to the existing =dotspacemacs-configuration-layers= list in
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this file.
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* Usage
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With window-purpose layer installed, =purpose-mode= and =pupo-mode= are enabled.
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You can toggle =purpose-mode= (~SPC : purpose-mode~) at any time to return to
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purpose-less behavior. You can toggle =pupo-mode= (~SPC : pupo-mode~) to turn
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off only the purpose-popwin integration.
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If you change =popwin:special-display-config= in your =dotspacemacs/config=, you
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should call =pupo/update-purpose-config= to update purpose-popwin with those
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changes.
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See [[https://github.com/bmag/emacs-purpose/wiki][window-purpose wiki]] to learn more about window-purpose.
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* Key bindings
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| Key binding | Description |
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|-------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
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| ~SPC r b~ | Open a buffer. Only buffers with the same purpose as the current buffer are listed. |
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| ~SPC r B~ | Open any buffer and ignore window-purpose when displaying the buffer. |
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| ~SPC r d~ | Toggle dedication of selected window to its current purpose. |
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| ~SPC r D~ | Delete all non-dedicated windows. |
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| ~SPC r p~ | Choose a purpose and open a buffer with that purpose. |
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| ~SPC r P~ | Change the purpose of the selected window. Changes the window’s buffer accordingly. |
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* Caveats
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** Popwin and guide-key
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If a buffer is displayed in two different windows, and only one of those windows
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is purpose-dedicated, then invoking guide-key will cause both windows to become
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purpose-dedicated.
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** Packages that do display management
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Some packages that manage how windows are displayed, such as =gdb= with
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=gdb-many-windows=, might not play nicely with =window-purpose=. However, it is
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usually possible to find a solution. After all, even =helm= and =popwin= work
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with =window-purpose=.
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