bug#32825: 27.0.50; Deterministic window management

[martin rudalics]

>> Maybe better to represent a list of prev/next buffers as a tree?
>> Then inserting a new buffer inside it will create a leaf that
>> can be ignored for navigation.  An analogy of this is undo-tree.
>
> More precisely, navigating in the tree trunk and ignoring branches.

Note that 'display-buffer-in-previous-window' doesn't care about the
order in which a buffer appears in a window's previous buffers list.
It only wants to know whether it's there and traversing a tree for
that purpose looks like overkill.

OTOH we would still have to decide what to do with a window's buffer
when displaying another buffer in that window via 'display-buffer':
Make it the first buffer we would want to switch to in the next
'switch-to-prev-buffer' call or make it insignificant (a leaf in your
parlance).

I currently tend to favor a solution like the below (we could also use
the 'buffer-predicate' frame parameter for that purpose but that would
affect 'other-buffer' as well, something I'd like to avoid).

The solution below should behave as follows: Assume TAGS is shown in
the selected window.  Then doing 'switch-to-prev-buffer' followed by
'switch-to-next-buffer' there should get me back to TAGS.  Doing
‘display-buffer’ there followed by 'switch-to-prev-buffer' should get
me to the buffer shown there before TAGS.

Then I could set the default of 'debugger-bury-or-kill' to 'append'
and *Backtrace* would not show up accidentally via
'switch-to-prev-buffer' but still remain on the list of previous
buffers so 'display-buffer-in-previous-window' will find it.  WDYT?

martin


(defcustom switch-to-prev-buffer-skip-regexp
  "\\*Backtrace\\*\\|TAGS"
  "Regexp matching names of buffer `switch-to-prev-buffer' should skip.
The default matches the *Backtrace* and the TAGS buffers."
  :type '(repeat (regexp :format "%v"))
  :group 'windows)

(defun switch-to-prev-buffer (&optional window bury-or-kill)
  "In WINDOW switch to previous buffer.
WINDOW must be a live window and defaults to the selected one.
Return the buffer switched to, nil if no suitable buffer could be
found.

Optional argument BURY-OR-KILL non-nil means the buffer currently
shown in WINDOW is about to be buried or killed and consequently
shall not be switched to in future invocations of this command.

As a special case, if BURY-OR-KILL equals `append', this means to
move the buffer to the end of WINDOW's previous buffers list so a
future invocation of `switch-to-prev-buffer' less likely switches
to it."
  (interactive)
  (let* ((window (window-normalize-window window t))
         (frame (window-frame window))
         (window-side (window-parameter window 'window-side))
         (old-buffer (window-buffer window))
         ;; Save this since it's destroyed by `set-window-buffer'.
         (next-buffers (window-next-buffers window))
         (pred (frame-parameter frame 'buffer-predicate))
         entry new-buffer killed-buffers visible)
    (when (window-minibuffer-p window)
      ;; Don't switch in minibuffer window.
      (unless (setq window (minibuffer-selected-window))
        (error "Window %s is a minibuffer window" window)))

    (unless (memq (window-dedicated-p window) '(nil side))
      ;; Don't switch in dedicated window.
      (error "Window %s is dedicated to buffer %s" window old-buffer))

    (catch 'found
      ;; Scan WINDOW's previous buffers first, skipping entries of next
      ;; buffers.
      (dolist (entry (window-prev-buffers window))
        (when (and (setq new-buffer (car entry))
                   (or (buffer-live-p new-buffer)
                       (not (setq killed-buffers
                                  (cons new-buffer killed-buffers))))
                   (not (eq new-buffer old-buffer))
                   (not (string-match-p
                         switch-to-prev-buffer-skip-regexp
                         (buffer-name new-buffer)))
                   (or (null pred) (funcall pred new-buffer))
                   ;; When BURY-OR-KILL is nil, avoid switching to a
                   ;; buffer in WINDOW's next buffers list.
                   (or bury-or-kill (not (memq new-buffer next-buffers))))
          (if (and (not switch-to-visible-buffer)
                   (get-buffer-window new-buffer frame))
              ;; Try to avoid showing a buffer visible in some other
              ;; window.
              (setq visible new-buffer)
            (set-window-buffer-start-and-point
             window new-buffer (nth 1 entry) (nth 2 entry))
            (throw 'found t))))
      ;; Scan reverted buffer list of WINDOW's frame next, skipping
      ;; entries of next buffers.  Note that when we bury or kill a
      ;; buffer we don't reverse the global buffer list to avoid showing
      ;; a buried buffer instead.  Otherwise, we must reverse the global
      ;; buffer list in order to make sure that switching to the
      ;; previous/next buffer traverse it in opposite directions.  Skip
      ;; this step for side windows.
      (unless window-side
        (dolist (buffer (if bury-or-kill
                            (buffer-list frame)
                          (nreverse (buffer-list frame))))
          (when (and (buffer-live-p buffer)
                     (not (eq buffer old-buffer))
                     (not (string-match-p
                           switch-to-prev-buffer-skip-regexp
                           (buffer-name new-buffer)))
                     (or (null pred) (funcall pred buffer))
                     (not (eq (aref (buffer-name buffer) 0) ?\s))
                     ;; Don't show a buffer shown in a side window before.
                     (not (buffer-local-value 'window--sides-shown buffer))
                     (or bury-or-kill (not (memq buffer next-buffers))))
            (if (and (not switch-to-visible-buffer)
                     (get-buffer-window buffer frame))
                ;; Try to avoid showing a buffer visible in some other window.
                (unless visible
                  (setq visible buffer))
              (setq new-buffer buffer)
              (set-window-buffer-start-and-point window new-buffer)
              (throw 'found t)))))
      (unless bury-or-kill
        ;; Scan reverted next buffers last (must not use nreverse
        ;; here!).
        (dolist (buffer (reverse next-buffers))
          ;; Actually, buffer _must_ be live here since otherwise it
          ;; would have been caught in the scan of previous buffers.
          (when (and (or (buffer-live-p buffer)
                         (not (setq killed-buffers
                                    (cons buffer killed-buffers))))
                     (not (eq buffer old-buffer))
                     (not (string-match-p
                           switch-to-prev-buffer-skip-regexp
                           (buffer-name new-buffer)))
                     (or (null pred) (funcall pred buffer))
                     (setq entry (assq buffer (window-prev-buffers window))))
            (setq new-buffer buffer)
            (set-window-buffer-start-and-point
             window new-buffer (nth 1 entry) (nth 2 entry))
            (throw 'found t))))

      ;; Show a buffer visible in another window.
      (when visible
        (setq new-buffer visible)
        (set-window-buffer-start-and-point window new-buffer)))

    (if bury-or-kill
        (let ((entry (and (eq bury-or-kill 'append)
                          (assq old-buffer (window-prev-buffers window)))))
          ;; Remove `old-buffer' from WINDOW's previous and (restored list
          ;; of) next buffers.
          (set-window-prev-buffers
           window (assq-delete-all old-buffer (window-prev-buffers window)))
          (set-window-next-buffers window (delq old-buffer next-buffers))
          (when entry
            ;; Append old-buffer's entry to list of WINDOW's previous
            ;; buffers so it's less likely to get switched to soon but
            ;; `display-buffer-in-previous-window' can nevertheless find
            ;; it.
            (set-window-prev-buffers
             window (append (window-prev-buffers window) (list entry)))))
      ;; Move `old-buffer' to head of WINDOW's restored list of next
      ;; buffers.
      (set-window-next-buffers
       window (cons old-buffer (delq old-buffer next-buffers))))

    ;; Remove killed buffers from WINDOW's previous and next buffers.
    (when killed-buffers
      (dolist (buffer killed-buffers)
        (set-window-prev-buffers
         window (assq-delete-all buffer (window-prev-buffers window)))
        (set-window-next-buffers
         window (delq buffer (window-next-buffers window)))))

    ;; Return new-buffer.
    new-buffer))