Re: Use of dedicated windows in gdb-mi.el

[Oleh Krehel]

Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:

>> From: Oleh Krehel <address@hidden>
>> Cc: address@hidden,  address@hidden
>> Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2015 18:22:25 +0100
>> 
>> Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:
>> 
>> >> From: Oleh Krehel <address@hidden>
>> >> Cc: Thibaut Verron <address@hidden>,  address@hidden
>> >> Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2015 16:57:36 +0100
>> >> 
>> >> I'm using plain `gdb', I don't even like `gdb-many-windows'. But even in
>> >> plain `gdb', I'm getting a dedicated *output* window that pops up each
>> >> time there's output.
>> >
>> > Don't you _want_ to see the output of a program you are debugging?
>> 
>> Nope. I can see all that I need through "p". The actual program output
>> for my particular program is barely relevant during runtime, and completely
>> irrelevant during debug time.
>
> Then perhaps a better solution would be an option not to pop the
> *output* window at all, so that the need to switch to another buffer
> in that window is eliminated?  Would you like such a solution better?

No this won't work. I don't want *output* in this particular program. I
might want it for others. I just want the typical approach of burying a
buffer once and then having it not surface, even if there's new output.

Just imagine the havoc of *Messages* being a dedicated window and
popping up each time there's a new message, even if you bury it.

>> >> The patch that I attached solves my problem with plain `gdb'.
>> >
>> > Maybe I'm missing something, but it looked to me that it made _all_
>> > the gdb-mi windows soft-dedicated.  If that's true, how about making
>> > only the popping output window soft-dedicated instead?
>> 
>> It changed two calls to `set-window-dedicated-p` to use the new custom
>> var, which is still t by default. Why should this worry you?
>
> Because that changes behavior of all the other GDB-MI windows, which
> are not part of the original problem in any way, as they are not
> displayed unless the user asked for them.  If what bothers you is that
> the *output* window pops up when you don't want to see it, I think
> it's better to solve that specific problem without affecting any
> unrelated features.

I dislike non-soft dedicated windows because they're bad design. I guess
that I could just advice `set-window-dedicated-p' to be a noop in all
cases.

If you have 9 minutes and a way to view Youtube videos, you can see my
demo of a neat approach to manipulating windows (especially the window
swap). This approach of course won't work with non-soft dedicated
windows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qZliI1BKzI.

Oleh