Add window management section.

1 files changed, 80 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/init.org b/init.org
index 9ad8536..c9da884 100644
--- a/init.org
+++ b/init.org
@@ -919,6 +919,86 @@ Some customisations for =paredit=.
 
 TODO: the parentheses adjustments should happen only when I’m in programming mode.
 
+* Window management
+
+I agree with this assessment of Emacs window splitting behavior in the README of the =perspective= package:
+
+#+BEGIN_QUOTE
+Emacs has bad default behavior when it comes to window handling: many commands and modes have a habit of splitting existing windows and changing the user's carefully thought-out window layout. This tends to be a more serious problem for people who run Emacs on large displays (possibly in full-screen mode): the greater amount of screen real estate makes it easy to split the frame into many smaller windows, making any unexpected alterations more disruptive.
+#+END_QUOTE
+
+We configure =display-buffer-alist= to reuse certain locations for buffers like documentation, compilation, etc.
+
+#+BEGIN_SRC elisp
+(setq display-buffer-alist
+      '(;; top side window
+        ("\\*\\(Flycheck\\|Flymake\\|Package-Lint\\|vc-git :\\).*"
+         (display-buffer-in-side-window)
+         (window-height . 0.16)
+         (side . top)
+         (slot . 0)
+         (window-parameters
+          . ((no-other-window . t)
+             (mode-line-format . (" "
+                                  mode-line-buffer-identification)))))
+        ("\\*\\(Backtrace\\|Warnings\\|Compile-Log\\|Messages\\)\\*"
+         (display-buffer-in-side-window)
+         (window-height . 0.16)
+         (side . top)
+         (slot . 1)
+         (window-parameters
+          . ((no-other-window . t)
+             (mode-line-format . (" "
+                                  mode-line-buffer-identification)))))
+        ;; bottom side window
+        (".*\\*Completions.*"
+         (display-buffer-in-side-window)
+         (window-height . 0.16)
+         (side . bottom)
+         (slot . 0)
+         (window-parameters . ((no-other-window . t))))
+        ("\\*Org Agenda\\*"
+         (display-buffer-in-direction)
+         (direction . leftmost)
+         (window-width . 0.40)
+         (window-parameters
+          . ((mode-line-format . nil))))
+        ("\\*\\(Help\\|Faces\\).*"
+         (display-buffer-in-side-window)
+         (side . left)
+         (slot . 0)
+         (window-width . 0.35)
+         (window-parameters . ((no-other-window . nil)
+                               (mode-line-format . nil))))
+        ;; bottom buffer (NOT side window)
+        ("\\*\\vc-\\(incoming\\|outgoing\\).*"
+         (display-buffer-at-bottom))
+
+        ;(".*" (reusable-frames . t))
+        ))
+(setq window-combination-resize t)
+(setq even-window-sizes 'height-only)
+(setq display-buffer-reuse-frames t)         ; reuse windows in other frames
+
+;; If non-nil, left and right side windows occupy full frame height.
+;; If nil, top and bottom side windows occupy full frame width.
+(setq window-sides-vertical nil)
+#+END_SRC
+
+The Help window might be a little too narrow, so we use a hook to switch to =visual-line-mode=:
+
+#+begin_src elisp
+(add-hook 'help-mode-hook
+          (lambda ()
+            (visual-line-mode 1)))
+#+end_src
+
+Side windows cannot be navigated, so we need another mechanism to close them all.
+
+#+begin_src elisp
+(global-set-key (kbd "C-x x") 'window-toggle-side-windows)
+#+end_src
+
 * Email
 
 TODO: this is a big blob of email configuration.  Document this properly!