Author: Sebastian Freundt, Stefan Kamphausen
Updated:
Navigation with marks on a ring of rings (torus)
This file contains both the old mtorus code from revision 1.6
and the new (more abstract) mtorus frontend code from the current
development
If I (hroptatyr) ever get that synch done from my personal wiki page
to the berlios project page you can follow these new changes yourselves.
Finally I'd like to add that I kept all the ;;; Usage and ;;; History
lines until the MTorus 2.0 is stable at last.
For information on how to fiddle with the new frontend/backend stuff
you can visit the EmacsWiki page listed below
MTorus on the Web:
Main page:
http://mtorus.berlios.de
Stefan's pages:
http://www.skamphausen.de/software/skamacs/mtorus.html
German intro:
http://www.skamphausen.de/xemacs/lisp/mtorus.html
English intro:
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/MTorus
Project page:
http://developer.berlios.de/projects/mtorus
EmacsWiki page:
http://www.emacswiki.org/wiki.pl?MTorus
ToDo: (in planner syntax)
#A1 _ manage currying for keyword definition (2004.09.14)
#A2 _ write docs (2004.09.14)
#A3 _ bring back mtorus-1.6 special lists (2004.09.14)
#A4 _ make current-element/ring frame/window-local (2004.09.14)
#A5 _ mtorus-state doesnt restore topology correctly (2004.09.14)
Getting Started
===============
- Place the MTorus directory somewhere in your 'load-path and put
(require 'mtorus)
in your .emacs
Now you have a useless element on your torus called mtorus-universe.
* Try to find some buffers that are worth to form a ring and do
M-x mtorus-create-ring RET
Enter some appropriate name for that ring.
Go to a buffer which should be part of the ring created and enter
M-x mtorus-create-element RET
When asked for a type just enter buffer or marker.
These are the only types predefined by default.
- Repeat this element creation step until you have enough buffers on your ring.
- Now you are able to navigate through your torus with the commands
mtorus-next-element
mtorus-prev-element
mtorus-parent-element
mtorus-child-element
- If you rather want to simulate mtorus-1.6 navigation behavior try
navigating with the commands
mtorus-uncle-element
mtorus-aunt-element
mtorus-nephew-element
mtorus-niece-element
To treat your command history with care, bind these commands to some keys.
Suggested Keybindings:
- I have H-kp-6, H-kp-4, H-kp-8 and H-kp-2 keys bound to
mtorus-next-element, mtorus-prev-element, mtorus-parent-element and
mtorus-child-element respectively -- [[hroptatyr]]
For selection of an element I user H-kp-5
- I prefer shift -left/right/up/down -- StefanKamphausen
To see some of the modularized external stuff in action put
(require 'mtorus-auto-rings)
in your .emacs. :D
Usage: (still recent, since everything tries to emulate mtorus-1.6)
===================================================================
MTorus lets you work with several groups of buffers, each group
being a separate ring. This is all for easier navigation through
buffers. I've been using some buffer cycling functions on (shift
left and shift right) for quite a long time now and I find myself
cycling through larger and larger lists every day. Starting one
instance of (X)Emacs for each editing context isn't the way and I
found no way of doing what I want with frames. An `editing context'
means a logical grouping of buffers. This could be a group for
quick edit of the emacs configuration files while you're actually
working on some (Ruby/Perl/whatever-) program or it could be all
the headers of your C project while all the .c-files make up
another group. Whatever you can think of. You could even make
different parts of your buffers (point positions) show up in
different groups like when one set of functions spread throughout
one (or more) files is responsible for one specific task or like
working on a chapter in a LaTeX-document while defining some macros
at the top of the file. There is always a default group which
contains all the open buffers and can not be altered.
Like so:
+- Ring: C-code -------------------------------------------------+
| |
| +- marker ---+ +- marker ---+ +- marker ---+ |
| | main.cc/224| | main.cc/567| | main.hh/312| |
| +------------+ +------------+ +------------+ |
| |
| +- marker ---+ +- marker ----+ |
| | *Occur*/84 | | README/1388 | |
| +------------+ +-------------+ |
| |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
+- Ring: quick --------------------------------------------------+
| |
| |
| +- marker ---+ +- marker -----+ |
| | .emacs/224 | | *scratch*/33 | |
| +------------+ +--------------+ |
| |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
+- Ring: doc ----------------------------------------------------+
| |
| |
| +- marker ---+ +- marker ---+ |
| | *info*/999 | | Man: ls/1 | |
| +------------+ +------------+ |
| |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
Choosing another entry in such a group is done by actually cycling
through the group (like with e.g. the kill-ring) and since the
entries are made of a buffer together with a position (and that is a
marker) each of the groups is comparable to the mark-ring. And
since we are cycling through a collection of those rings we are
using a Torus here. Hence the name: "mtorus": mark-torus.
(A "group" will usually be referred to as a "ring" from now.)