1

I like to create a small ansi-term window at the bottom of my emacs frame, so if I'm editing two files "A" and "B", my emacs frame would look like this:

+------+------+ | | | | A | B | | | | +------+------+ | ansi-term | +-------------+

I have a function & keybinding to create / remove the ansi-term window as needed. When I have it open, however, emacs has an annoying tendency split the ansi-term window in particular when creating a new window. For example, if I try to use C-h f to describe a function, emacs decides the best way to split my windows is to make it look like:

+------+------+ | | | | A | B | | | | +------+------+ | ansi | help | +-------------+

Which is the worst possible outcome. I'd be happy if either "A" or "B" were split, or if it simply opened "help" in which ever "A" or "B" I'm not working in. Is there any way to alert emacs that I never want the "ansi-term" window split? I assume this must be possible, since NeoTree seems to create an un-splittable window.

So far, I've found the following related functions, that don't quite do what I want:

  • (set-window-dedicated-p window t) - This makes it so emacs can't take over the window, but doesn't affect whether or not it's splittable
  • (set-frame-parameter nil 'unsplittable t) - This seems like it makes all windows in a frame unsplittable, not just the one I want.
  • split-window-preferred-function - Would allow me to write my own algorithm for determining how to split windows. I could probably force this to do what I want, but I don't really want to override this behavior for all of emacs, just this one window.

Is there a simple way to make it so my ansi-term window in particular is never split?

Improve this question
3
  • The docstring links quickly got me to window-splittable-p. Does the information there solve your problem? Commented Jan 2, 2024 at 3:51
  • That's a function that emacs calls every time it wants to split a window, passing in candidate windows as a parameter. I suppose I could override it to detect if it's looking at my ansi-term window, but I feel like that might be tricky to program correctly. Commented Jan 2, 2024 at 16:55
  • What I meant was: the docstring tells you the criteria it uses to decide whether the window is splittable, all of which are based on variables you can control for the buffer in question. Commented Jan 2, 2024 at 23:37

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Try

(display-buffer-in-side-window (get-buffer "*ansi-term*") '((side . bottom) (slot . 0))

See Displaying Buffers in Side Windows.

Improve this answer
1
  • This works, and it looks like that's what NeoTree is doing as well. Thanks! Commented Jan 2, 2024 at 20:37

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.