Vertical split in Emacs 23

Vertical split in Emacs 23

[Paul Mead]

Hi,

I've recently upgraded to Emacs 23, and I'm not at all impressed with
the vertical split that it seems to prefer when there's supposedly
enough buffer width to allow it - the Agenda gets squashed up and things
like the TODO quick selection menus look terrible.

Is there a way of changing this back to the old behaviour? Through
experimentation I've found that if I reduce the frame width sufficiently
it reverts to horizontal split but I like to work with emacs maximized
most often.

Thanks
Paul

Re: Vertical split in Emacs 23

[Benjamin Andresen]

Hey Paul,

Paul Mead <paul.d.mead@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi,
>
> I've recently upgraded to Emacs 23, and I'm not at all impressed with
> the vertical split that it seems to prefer when there's supposedly
> enough buffer width to allow it - the Agenda gets squashed up and things
> like the TODO quick selection menus look terrible.
>
> Is there a way of changing this back to the old behaviour?

I don't know if this will exactly revert it back to the previous
behavior, but if you change `split-width-threshold' to a bigger number
(e.g. 999) than the default it should be more sensible looking.

> Thanks
> Paul

br,
benny

Re: Vertical split in Emacs 23

[Paul Mead]

Benjamin Andresen <benny@in-ulm.de> writes:

> Hey Paul,
>
> I don't know if this will exactly revert it back to the previous
> behavior, but if you change `split-width-threshold' to a bigger number
> (e.g. 999) than the default it should be more sensible looking.
>
> br,
> benny

Thanks Benny, that'll get me going for now.

Having thought about this a bit more, I can see where the new behaviour
might be useful, but it just looks a bit ugly in org-mode because (I
guess) it's not been written to deal with narrower buffers.

Would this be a minor fix or a major change do you think? My elisp is
about as competent as my sanskrit I'm afraid...

Paul

Re: Re: Vertical split in Emacs 23

[Cian OConnor]

Add the following to your .emacs file:
(setq split-width-threshold 999)

I actually like the change, but then I'm using a widescreen monitor 
where it makes more sense.

Paul Mead wrote:
> Benjamin Andresen <benny@in-ulm.de> writes:
>
>   
>> Hey Paul,
>>
>> I don't know if this will exactly revert it back to the previous
>> behavior, but if you change `split-width-threshold' to a bigger number
>> (e.g. 999) than the default it should be more sensible looking.
>>
>> br,
>> benny
>>     
>
> Thanks Benny, that'll get me going for now.
>
> Having thought about this a bit more, I can see where the new behaviour
> might be useful, but it just looks a bit ugly in org-mode because (I
> guess) it's not been written to deal with narrower buffers.
>
> Would this be a minor fix or a major change do you think? My elisp is
> about as competent as my sanskrit I'm afraid...
>
> Paul
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Remember: use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
> Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
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>   

Re: Vertical split in Emacs 23

[Nick Dokos]

Paul Mead <paul.d.mead@gmail.com> wrote:


> I've recently upgraded to Emacs 23, and I'm not at all impressed with
> the vertical split that it seems to prefer when there's supposedly
> enough buffer width to allow it - the Agenda gets squashed up and things
> like the TODO quick selection menus look terrible.
> 
> Is there a way of changing this back to the old behaviour? Through
> experimentation I've found that if I reduce the frame width sufficiently
> it reverts to horizontal split but I like to work with emacs maximized
> most often.
> 

Assuming that the variable `split-window-preferred-function' is set to
`split-window-sensibly', you can play with some of the settings mentioned
in the functions's documentation:

,----
| split-window-sensibly is a compiled Lisp function in `window.el'.
| 
| (split-window-sensibly WINDOW)
| 
| Split WINDOW in a way suitable for `display-buffer'.
| If `split-height-threshold' specifies an integer, WINDOW is at
| least `split-height-threshold' lines tall and can be split
| vertically, split WINDOW into two windows one above the other and
| return the lower window.  Otherwise, if `split-width-threshold'
| specifies an integer, WINDOW is at least `split-width-threshold'
| columns wide and can be split horizontally, split WINDOW into two
| windows side by side and return the window on the right.  If this
| can't be done either and WINDOW is the only window on its frame,
| try to split WINDOW vertically disregarding any value specified
| by `split-height-threshold'.  If that succeeds, return the lower
| window.  Return nil otherwise.
| 
| By default `display-buffer' routines call this function to split
| the largest or least recently used window.  To change the default
| customize the option `split-window-preferred-function'.
| 
| You can enforce this function to not split WINDOW horizontally,
| by setting (or binding) the variable `split-width-threshold' to
| nil.  If, in addition, you set `split-height-threshold' to zero,
| chances increase that this function does split WINDOW vertically.
| 
| In order to not split WINDOW vertically, set (or bind) the
| variable `split-height-threshold' to nil.  Additionally, you can
| set `split-width-threshold' to zero to make a horizontal split
| more likely to occur.
| 
| Have a look at the function `window-splittable-p' if you want to
| know how `split-window-sensibly' determines whether WINDOW can be
| split.
`----

I haven't checked whether/how you can restore emacs-22 behavior though.

HTH,
Nick

Re: Re: Vertical split in Emacs 23

[Bastien]

Hi Paul,

Paul Mead <paul.d.mead@gmail.com> writes:

> Having thought about this a bit more, I can see where the new behaviour
> might be useful, but it just looks a bit ugly in org-mode because (I
> guess) it's not been written to deal with narrower buffers.

can you provide a screenshot showing a case where org-mode looks ugly
with Emacs default split behavior?  Then I might have a look...

Thanks!

-- 
 Bastien

Re: Vertical split in Emacs 23

[Paul Mead]

Bastien <bastienguerry@googlemail.com> writes:

> Hi Paul,
>
> Paul Mead <paul.d.mead@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Having thought about this a bit more, I can see where the new behaviour
>> might be useful, but it just looks a bit ugly in org-mode because (I
>> guess) it's not been written to deal with narrower buffers.
>
> can you provide a screenshot showing a case where org-mode looks ugly
> with Emacs default split behavior?  Then I might have a look...
>
> Thanks!

OK, so I've had a chance to look at this again, and my main concern was
with the width of the TODO state quick-select buffer. Now I see that the
length of the line is dependent on my configuration, so that if I
shorten the todo sequence lines in .emacs it looks far better in the
narrow window.

The only remaining issue is with the agenda view, where my longish TODO
items are truncated in the window, so I either need to use follow mode
or see if one of the wrapping functions will work on this buffer.

Thanks
Paul

Re: Vertical split in Emacs 23

[Ryan C. Thompson]

I believe the function you're looking for is split-window-sensibly. Try 
M-x describe-function split-window-sensibly. It describes all the 
relevant variables that control its behavior.

If you wish to affect the behavior of only a specific case of splitting 
windows (for example, the org-todo function) you can use advice to 
temporarily modify one or more of these variables for the duration of 
the function call. For example, the following (untested!) code should 
guarantee a vertical split for org-todo:

(defadvice org-todo (around tweak-splitting-behavior activate)
   "Tweak the sensible window splitting behavior for org-todo."
   (let ((split-height-threshold 0))
     ad-do-it))