Re: quit-window

[martin rudalics]

> quit-window bound to `q' in a keymap provides a nice, consistent UI for
> getting rid of the window and killing/burying its buffer.

But only when you are viewing a buffer.

> However, some modes are inhibiting consistency by wrapping quit-window
> in a function, which in most cases performs some kind of cleanup. This
> creates inconsistency in the interface since, for example, `C-u q' to
> kill the buffer is not available anymore unless the wrapper passes on
> the argument to quit-window.
>
> Take for example `info-emacs-manual', which provides `Info-exit' bound
> to `q' in its map. `q' will quit the window and bury the buffer, but
> `C-u q' will *not* kill the buffer.

I think this could be fixed by changing `Info-exit' appropriately.  The
prefix argument should be passed on to `quit-window'.  (We can't run
`quit-window' directly in Info-mode since we have to deal with the
Info-standalone case.)

> I have identified at least 18 modes that do something similar. Maybe
> some special case even needs to, but most of the time it could be
> cleaned up, IMO.

These were written before I rewrote `quit-window'.  Indeed I shall have
to look into these.

> Also, some of these exit wrappers explicitely restore a previous
> window configuration. Doesn't quit-window handle that already?

It should do better, because `quit-window' is able to quit a window
shown on another frame too.  So all this configuration stuff should be
eliminated eventually.

> Finally, if there is mode-specific cleanup to be done, could we provide
> a quit-window-hook to connect to so we can eliminate the need for
> wrappers?
>
> This would allow a more consistent behavior between the modes. Maybe
> it's just me, but often I am surprised as a user by the difference in
> behavior of certain commands, especially when it comes to window
> manipulation (quit, kill, bury etc.).

You mean that `kill-buffer-hook' is not sufficient for you?  One problem
with a simple quit-window-hook is that it could falsely create the
impression that after `quit-window' the associated buffer is no more
displayed at all.  This might be wrong.  Basically, what you need is
provided by `window-configuration-change-hook'.  The problem with the
latter is that application programmers don't know how to use it because
they can't know _what_ precisely has changed.  That information would
have to be provided somewhere, somehow.  Suggestions welcome.

martin