buffers and files and plus ca la change and all that

[OtherMichael]

some discussion over at StackOverflow:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/195485/why-do-old-editors-like-vim-and-emacs-expose-the-difference-between-a-file-and#195668

Q: Why do old editors like Vim and Emacs expose the difference between
a File and a Buffer in the interface?

A: [.... B]because late binding between the buffer in the editor and
the actual concrete thing you're working on, gives the editing
environment more flexibility and power.

Think this is out of date? One place where the idea is back with a
vengeance is in the browser, where you don't have 1-1 correspondence
between tabs and web-pages. Instead, inside each tab you can navigate
forwards and backwards between multiple pages. No-one would try to
make an MDI type interface to the web, where each page had it's own
inner window. It would be impossibly fiddly to use. It just wouldn't
scale.


--the Other michael