I want to have something like this:
A list of buffer is display
As I select a buffer in the list, it's content is display immediately.
The list can be in minibuffer (preferred) or in a separate window
Is there a plug in for this?
Finally found what I wanted (although a bit differed from what I wanted, but it got the essential feature right): https://github.com/martinp26/cycbuf
It automatically display buffers with a list of buffer as the cursor move at a buffer name. Customize variable cycbuf-clear-delay to adjust the time the buffer list is toggled; after exceeding the delay, the buffer list is automatically turned off and the buffer is picked.
^x^b displays a list of buffers, then you can click on one. Is that what you want?
There are several alternatives. For discussion on these, see for example http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ControlTABbufferCycling
There's many options. Some are:
to display a list of buffers: ibuffer is an option http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/IbufferMode
to have the list in the minibuffer: ido-switch-buffer http://wikemacs.org/index.php/Ido#Virtual_Buffers or you can use helm's interface http://wikemacs.org/index.php/Helm
The EmacsWiki pages cited in the other answers (so far) are a subset of the wiki's main page for this topic, which is where you should start.
(That wiki page is also a good place for other answers, which do not cite EmacsWiki, to update. ;-) )
Related
I was wondering how people manage with the useless messages etc emacs buffers generated randomly, for example after my completions, I get an completions buffer and it upsets me it create a buffer I have to traverse to get to the next buffer. Anyone have a solution to this?
The title is rather vague. There are lots of Q&As on the general subject of "buffer management" in Emacs. Here's one which includes links to several others (see "Linked" in the right-hand sidebar):
How can I more easily switch between buffers in Emacs?
For your specific question, I suggest using the excellent winner-mode. Just add (winner-mode 1) to your .emacs file (or type M-x winner-mode RET to try it out).
Once enabled, you can call winner-undo with C-c<left> (repeatedly, if necessary) to step backwards through all the previous window configurations.
Thus, when a window pops up and you no longer want it, you type C-c<left> and you're immediately back to how things were before.
C-c<right> calls winner-redo which restores the configuration you started with (i.e. it doesn't step through the configurations like the undo command).
Also note that many types of buffer can be buried with q or deleted with z.
I want to implement Autofocus system in org-mode using agenda views. Autofocus is a time-management system, where you write tasks in a lined notebook with 25-35 lines on a page and you don't start working on the next page until you processed the current page.
By default agenda collects all todos and throws them in a buffer altogether. I want to break these todos by blocks of 20 tasks, for example, so i can process one batch of 20 tasks, then another batch, and so on.
How can i do it? Any solution from using org-mode built-in trick to some emacs lisp snippet is appreciated.
I don't see this going the same way as the agenda usually goes, i.e. chronology, so I don't think there are meant-to-be ways to do that. What comes to my mind, though, is defining your batches with tags (: in the agenda to set tags, say on the first 20), then filtering by tags (/ SPC to filter on tags of the current line).
The first idea I had was basically the same with priorities : S-<up> in the agenda to set them, but then filtering by priority is described here on the mailing list, but doesn't seem that easy.
From the documentation, org-agenda-max-todos and org-agenda-max-entries might be what you are looking for.
Note: I have never used them. I came across these a while ago
I use an Org file to keep track of my activities, because it's often that I am loosing track of what actually I am aiming to do :)
Now, I would like to reserved a top buffer window with only 5 lines tall and show the narrowed todo from that org file. All other window/buffer activites will not touch that static/pinned buffer.
Is there a way to achieve that result???
Thanks!
EDITED : Can we make that certain buffer to have different background Color? I pressume it's not, because all we have is set-background-color... I hope I am wrong..
Maybe setting the variable special-display-buffer-names will set you in the right direction.
(setq special-display-buffer-names
'(("magic buffer" (width . 70)
(height . 7)
(background-color . "green"))
))
to test certainly made a buffer called "magic buffer" turn up in a small and very very green frame. (For real-life use, of course do go through the customize mechanism by all means.)
ETA: And then, there's also this question which might apply here.
If you clock in to the Org TODO item, that task will be displayed in the modeline of the current buffer; you might also find that helpful as a reminder of what you're working on.
The original part of the question is a duplicate. See How do I make this Emacs frame keep its buffer and not get resized? (which is slightly enhanced over the earlier Pin Emacs buffers to windows (for cscope)), and the set-window-dedicated-p function.
YOu can use org-todo-list to show TODO items and org-agenda will show you useful choices such as "M" that filters your TODO items by keyword.
I struggled with the same problem for a while. The best solution I came up with was creating a small Emacs frame (size: 80x13) for my Org-mode agenda and placing it in an always-visible portion of my screen. (Use "C-x 5 2" to create a new frame.)
I've been using emacs for all of my text editing needs for the past three years now. When I'm in a single file, working on code or whatnot, I'm fairly efficient. With two files, I can "C-x b RET" between them and I do fine. However, whenever I need to be working on more than two files at a time, I tend to get lost.
Here are some of the problems that I'd like to work on:
I forget what some of my buffers are called, but I don't understand why C-x C-b splits my window into two buffers and exits the mini buffer. Sure I can switch buffers and choose a buffer to visit, but this feels unintuitive, and leaves me with two buffers open.
When I visit a directory rather than a file, I have a convenient list of all of the files and directories. I usually want to do one of two things with this: 1) Open a single file and never see this buffer again OR 2) Open a bunch of files and never see this buffer again. I don't really know how to do this, as moving the point to a file and hitting return doesn't do either of these things.
I know that my buffers aren't like tabs, but I have an inclination to want to scroll through them to find what I want. I don't know of any key-bindings for this, but I'd like it to be M-n / M-p or the like. Then again, this may be a horribly inefficient way to switch buffers.
When I open interactive help of any kind (for example in ESS), I have a habit of switching back to the buffer I was working in and using C-x 1 to get back to a single buffer. When I do this, however, the help buffer hangs around in my buffer list, further confusing me. I know I can switch to that buffer, kill it, switch back, and then go back to a single buffer, but this seems wrong.
The way I've dealt with this so far involves using a tiling window manager and a few emacs windows in different work-spaces, rather than actually learn the best way to manage a number of files in emacs. I don't necessarily want to change emacs to better fit my needs (although I am open to that if it fits in with what I'm about to say), instead, I'd like to grok the thought process behind handling files/buffers the way that emacs does, and how I can be more efficient with it.
Any answer that would help me understand the correct way, or a more efficient way to manage my buffers or files would be greatly appreciated.
Bind C-x C-b to ibuffer. This is a better buffer listing facility with many advanced features, and its default behaviour is to replace the current buffer with the buffer listing, and then bury the listing when you select a buffer (leaving you with the newly-selected buffer in place of the original one).
You can simply use C-x b to enter your selection in the mini-buffer, of course; however the tab-completion (which is needed to make this a viable option, IMO) does open a new window temporarily, at which point I think you might as well familiarise yourself with something with more features.
Use a instead of RET when selecting from dired. This kills the dired buffer instead of leaving it behind. C-h m in any buffer will show you the help for its major mode (followed by help for the minor modes), and you can read about all the available dired key bindings there.
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/TabBarMode ? (edit: I prefer Rémi's answer for this one, but TabBarMode would give you the visual tab element if you were particularly keen on that.)
q is bound to a 'quit' function in a great many major modes. Generally it buries the buffer rather than killing it, but I certainly find that fine.
To elaborate a little on #1, ibuffer has lots of nice features, and M-x customize-group ibuffer RET will give you some idea of how you can customise it to your liking.
Furthermore, you can filter the buffer list by many criteria (again, use C-h m to see its help page), and then generate a 'group' definition from the current filters, and save your custom filters and groups for future usage.
For example:
/ f ^/var/www/ RET: filter buffer list to show only filenames starting with /var/www/.
/ s Web filters RET: name and save active filter set to your init file.
/ g Web development RET: create a named group from the active filters.
/ S My groups RET: name and save group definitions to your init file.
/ r Web filters RET: invoke the "Web filters" filters.
/ R My groups RET: invoke the "My groups" groups.
RET on a group name to collapse or expand it.
C-k and C-y to kill and yank groups, to re-arrange them.
C-h m for more information...
This way you can have a single Emacs instance running, and create filters and groups for different types of task, and easily switch between them.
I think you will really enjoy Ido for dealing with multiple buffers who's names you can't exactly remember. When you type C-x b it shows a list of open buffers in most used order. As you type some of the characters in a buffer name the list is filtered. The characters you type don't have to be at the begging of the name or contiguous. Using C-f, C-b or left/right arrow keys cycles through the buffer choices.
Also see Smex for Ido like functionality for M-x
Closing windows is done with C-x 0. Intentionally splitting the window is done with C-x 2 for horizontal, C-x 3 for vertical. I love this feature, since it allows me to have test and production code visible at the same time. C-x o takes me to the other window.
I use C-x right (or C-x C-right) and C-x left (or C-x C-right) to go to the next and previous buffer. I don't mind anymore off the few buffer that lay around in Emacs but you could use k in the buffer list to kill the buffer you don't use anymore.
You can also try Iswitchb mode which provides auto-completion for buffer names when you switch buffers via C-x b.
To activate:
M-x iswitchb-mode
Or add to your .emacs file:
(iswitchb-mode)
It is similar to Ido mode for buffer switching but a bit more lightweight.
Also, if you want a more customizable listing of your buffers then use M-x bs-show as an alternative to C-x C-b. In that buffer type ? to get a list of actions you can perform.
I think the number one most useful extension for flipping through buffers is Anything. It lets you start typing part of a buffer (or file!) name and it will figure out what you want. I've rebound C-x b to anything-for-buffers. It makes life so much better.
As always, there are many ways to help you with this; it depends a bit on personal preference what works best, here are some links with explanations:
ibuffer; which is an updated buffer menu (C-x C-b)
ido, which let's you have more powerful autocompletion to switch through buffers. It's a kind-of 'better iswitchb'.
These two are enough for me; but you may also be interested in the tabbar-mode, which gives you rudimentary tabs (like firefox has them).
In vim, visual block can be recall by 'gv' command so that multiple commands can be applied easily. (such as, comment out, then indent, then do_something_fun).
In Emacs, how can this be achieved?
[C-xC-x] only works when current cursor position stays where previous block ended.
If previous block was changed, the closest is to go through 'point-to-register' and 'jump-to-register'.
Just I am curious if there is an Emacs built-in command making this in one shot.
If Transient Mark mode is off, the region is always active. If it's on (which it sounds like is your situation), you can set mark-even-if-inactive to non-nil to allow region commands to work while the region isn't highlighted.
However, note you also can cycle back through previous mark positions using C-u C-SPC -- this will pop the mark ring. Once you're back to where you want to be, C-x C-x will rehighlight the region you want. (It may take a little bit of playing with this feature to get a feel for it, but it's why I can't switch away from Emacs now.)
If I understand correctly what you are asking for, then you don't need to do anything. When you select a region in emacs, it stays selected until you select a new one. So you could select the region and then perform as many actions as you want.
Sounds like you're looking for the secondary selection, which stays put even as the region might change. (It stays put until you move it.)
See:
the Emacs manual, node Secondary Selection
Emacs wiki page Secondary Selection
library second-sel.el:
Also narrow-to-region (CTRL-x n n ) applies every command from then on just to that region- you can't hurt the rest of the buffer, it doesn't even show. After done editing , widen (CTRL-x n w )to get back the whole buffer.
CMM
If you use evil-mode, just press gv like in vim.
Since the answers here and for other similar SO questions didn't help for me (CUA-mode, Emacs 24, not only indent-rigidly), I continued searching and finally found a reselect-last-region defined in this collection of custom function (starting line 670). That worked like a charm for me - and hopefully does for others still arriving here.