CoCoA » CoCoA-5

1. make the current functions choose automatically between vert/horiz split (e.g. based on window width)
2. let the user set/toggle a global variable which says whether to split vert/horiz

I wonder what the KISS design would be...?

• would the global variable be remembered between Emacs sessions? If so, how?
• on the whole I'm sceptical about "automatics" (unless there's an easy override).

Here are some emacs fns which might be useful:
window-body-width width of the text area
window-body-height height of the text area

I found the following nice Emacs function

(defun rotate-split ()
  (interactive)
  (let ((root (car (window-tree))))
    (if (listp root)
        (let* ((w1 (nth 2 root))
               (w2 (nth 3 root))
               (b1 (window-buffer w1))
               (b2 (window-buffer w2)))
          (cond ((car root)             ; currently vertically split
                 (delete-window w2)
                 (set-window-buffer (split-window-horizontally) b2))
                (t                      ; currently horizontally split
                 (delete-window w1)
                 (set-window-buffer (split-window-vertically) b1))))
      (message "Root window not split")))) 

The URL was http://emacs.1067599.n5.nabble.com/rotate-split-windows-td64770.html

It passed some simple tests in Emacs 23.1; some people reported problems with Emacs 21.3

I think the default should be horizontal.
I can make the hor/ver toggle available in the menu.
It can be set for all session using the "CoCoA - Preferences" menu.

Note by JAA it should be easy to modify cocoa5 so that it splits horizontally if given an argument (e.g. C-u M-x cocoa5)

I think using the rotate-split function is probably the best solution; it is quite general and might even be useful outside the CoCoA context :-)

I want to check to make sure it doesn't do anything strange if there are more than 2 windows in the frame, and also if the frame is a funny shape (e.g. tall & thin, or short & wide).

Not yet sure what key binding to use (we can define a cocoa5 specific key binding).

If we have a global variable, we could make it 3-state: horizontal-split, vertical-split or auto.

If we do this, we must decide what auto means (e.g. if the window is wider than 119 then do vertical-split otherwise horizontal-split). Indeed auto could be indicated by an integer value (to be used instead of the rather arbitrary 119)

What do you think?
[perhaps my idea is not very KISS]

Apparently (on Aquamacs) it splits horizontally or vertically depending on the width of the window. That may be confusing when changing the size of the window after the first split (causes an extra split).
Maybe we should have a user flag in the CoCoA-Menu saying "horizontal/vertical split" to be used independently on the window shape. Default should be "horizontal".

OK for a menu flag which indicates the preferred way of splitting.

Some while ago I added to cocoa5.el the fn cocoa5-rotate-split; it is not perfect (sometimes it leaves the cursor in the wrong place). Someone(Anna?) has added it to cocoa5-mode-map.

I slightly improved the menu so that it indicates which splitting is defined.
(with a tick next to side-by-side or to top-bottom)
I think it is quite nice :-)
just cvs-ed