Eric S Fraga <ucecesf@ucl.ac.uk> writes:

> On Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:17:20 -0400, Dan Davison <davison@stats.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>> I've been working on an Org tool to browse Emacs buffers. Emacs has the
>> function list-buffers (C-x C-b), where you can view a list of buffers,
>> delete buffers, etc. This is intended to be a replacement for
>> list-buffers, implemented in Org-mode.
>
> Excellent!  I really like this.  I currently use both bs-show and ido
> for buffer selection but I could easily be convinced to use this
> instead of bs-show.

Hi Eric,

>  Some comments:
>
>> The buffer has some special key-bindings:
>
> I have a problem with the current bindings: you are (I guess) trying
> to emulate dired to some degree (cf. bindings for RET, 'd', 'o' [1] and
> 'x').  It would be nice therefore to have movement bindings as well
> ('n' and 'p').  I can obviously bind these myself but 'p' is already
> taken and it would be nice to be as consistent with the defaults as
> possible.  

Yes, I think I'm trying to emulate dired while still staying true to
Org. But I hadn't thought carefully about the keybindings yet and your
comments are very helpful.

As an experiment at least, I've now changed things so that Org speed
commands are turned on everywhere in the buffer. That means that we gain
all the commands listed in `org-speed-commands-default', including n, p,
f, b, u for movement. Another one I notice is useful is '.' for
outline-mark-subtree, so that '. d x' deletes a group of buffers

This does also mean that various inappropriate speed commands become
exposed (but then pressing random keys is a strategy that should be
confined to gnus).

> Maybe 'P' for properties on/off?

Done.

> When I tried column view, the default widths are much too wide for my
> netbook.  Can these be changed?

I've made them narrower by default, and introduced a customizable
variable org-buffers-columns-format.

>  More importantly, when I left column
> view, the buffer view was now different than the original view.

Thanks. I've fixed that.

> Originally, I had two levels (mode + buffer) and now it was a single
> level (buffer).  How do I get back to mode+buffer two level view?

org-buffers-list:by, which is now bound to B (used to be b). It brings
up minibuffer completion for the property you want to group by, so

B maj RET

would be enough to regroup by major-mode (should you need to).

>
> Thanks again!
>
> eric
>
> Footnotes: 
> [1]  I found 'o' initially annoying as knowing that I was in org, I
> expected it to behave like 'o' in agenda (hide other window)...

Noted. On the other hand o in Org speed commands is bound to
org-open-at-point. I've got rid of my binding and am allowing it to fall
through to the speed command default but I'd welcome any further
suggestions. Note that the variable org-buffers-follow-link-method can
be used so specify the behaviour of RET on a line with a buffer link.

Thanks a lot for the comments. The columns view thing is a bit
experimental still; I'm not sure what to do about the key bindings, or
indeed quite what the purpose of it is in this context, but it did seem
like a natural buffer to allow it in.

I haven't used bs-show. It might be interesting to try to get some of
the power of ibuffer in this mode. But Org is better than the
alternatives at hierarchical grouping and tree navigation. And also, the
alternatives are very ugly.

Current code below and at http://github.com/dandavison/org-buffers.

Dan