Emacs: beframe version 1.0.0

2023-11-17

beframe enables a frame-oriented Emacs workflow where each frame has access to the list of buffers visited therein. In the interest of brevity, we call buffers that belong to frames “beframed”.

• Package name (GNU ELPA): beframe
• Official manual: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/beframe
• Change log: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/beframe-changelog
• Git repo on SourceHut: https://git.sr.ht/~protesilaos/beframe
  • Mirrors:
    • GitHub: https://github.com/protesilaos/beframe
    • GitLab: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/beframe
• Mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/general-issues
• Video demo: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2023-02-28-emacs-beframe-demo/
• Backronym: Buffers Encapsulated in Frames Realise Advanced Management of Emacs.

Below are the release notes

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beframe is in a stable state. This release formalises a set of stability enhancements and quality-of-life improvements.

The menu bar helps you discover Beframe commands

A submenu with Beframe commands is available to users of menu-bar-mode. It is available at Buffers > BEFRAME buffers. Check the original announcement, which includes screenshots: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2023-10-08-emacs-beframe-menu/.

[ As an aside, never tell a new user to add (menu-bar-mode -1) to their Emacs init file. It is not helpful. ]

The sample integration with consult can flip between recent buffers

In the manual of beframe there is a section about augmenting the consult-buffer command with a new source of beframed buffers (buffers specific to the current frame). Edgar Vincent made a change that sorts buffers by last viewed, meaning that the previous buffer is at the top of the list. The change is within the ~15 line limit and thus Edgar does not need to assign copyright to the Free Software Foundation. Discussed on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/general-issues/%3C878r97fxmc.fsf%40protesilaos.com%3E.

Refer to the manual for the code to integrate beframe with consult: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/beframe#h:1c2d3d64-aa7b-4585-a418-ccedbb548b38.

NOTE that you do not need consult to use beframe: (i) the beframe-mode makes the regular switch-to-buffer work in a beframed way and/or (ii) use the beframe-buffer-menu to get a list of the beframed buffers (call the latter command with a prefix key (C-u by default) to select a frame whose buffers you want to list).

The beframe-rename-function can take a nil value

This was always the intent, though the code did not honour it. Thanks to Karthik Chikmagalur for reporting the bug on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/general-issues/%3C87a5w8yi1n.fsf%40gmail.com%3E.

General refinements

• Commands that prompt for a frame (e.g. beframe-assume-frame-buffers) no longer try to perform their work if a single Emacs frame is available. Instead, they return a user-error.

• The buffer that was current when a new frame was created is no longer part of the new frame’s buffer list. This means that the new frame starts clean, including only the buffer specified in the user option beframe-global-buffers.

• The code that renames a new frame based is better at inferring the correct name. It now finds the project.el name, if available. The manual explains how to use Beframe with projects: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/beframe#h:5b751614-8749-4aa8-aaed-f181beaddc57 (to me, this is a killer feature).

• Simplified how frames are set up. This guarantees that our functions are called in the desired order.