Re: Working with one buffer in two frames/windows

[Vincent Belaïche]

Hello,

Just to throw a comment into this discussion from a non-developper : 
something that is quite disturbing to the user is that when you have 
several windows on the same buffer, and you switch on/off narrowing 
(which is quite often the case when you want to limit the scope of some 
search and replace), then you loose the point position on the other 
window after switching narrowing off again.

If this has been changed in Emacs version 23, then forget this mail (I 
am with 22.2).

It is disturbing because all windows are about is looking at several 
point of the same buffer at the same time, and narrowing on/off looses 
this multiplicity of points of view.

My suggestion is that:
1) when going to narrowing on a buffer, points in other windows of the 
same buffer should be stored if they are outside the narrowed region,
2) if during narrowing mode, the user goes to the other window, and 
moves the point, then the other window's before-narrowing-stored-point 
should be erased, and
3) when the user is going out of the narrowing mode, then for each other 
window on the same buffer, if there is before-narrowing-stored-point 
available, it should be restored.

Surely this restoring of the window configuration prior to narrowing 
should be made a defcustom choice (always, never, ask-user). Maybe point 
2 above is not that much needed.

Ideally, narrowing should concern only one window, and not the full 
buffer (in any windows), but maybe this is too much change because 
narrowing has to do with the current buffer mode and making an indirect 
buffer is a better response.

At least this point save&restore thing would be quite useful, especially 
as using a couple of windows is often more practical than using 
registers to store a point, even though more ephemeral, just as window 
handling command (C-x 2, C-x 1, C-x 0) are of quite easy access.

BR,
 Vincent.