From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham
	autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
X-Google-Thread: a07f3367d7,82dadb8a32a5cd0b
X-Google-Attributes: gida07f3367d7,public,usenet
X-Google-NewGroupId: yes
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
Path: 
 g2news2.google.com!news1.google.com!npeer02.iad.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!post02.iad.highwinds-media.com!news.flashnewsgroups.com-b7.4zTQh5tI3A!not-for-mail
From: Stephen Leake <stephen_leake@stephe-leake.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Emacs and long file names
References: 
 <755de929-67b4-4de6-8982-a0bfc43effc0@z15g2000prh.googlegroups.com>
Date: Mon, 24 May 2010 22:36:10 -0400
Message-ID: <8239xgaesl.fsf@stephe-leake.org>
User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1 (windows-nt)
Cancel-Lock: sha1:KmATlQ2CyN/vt5M3Yq5dSC5fuIg=
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
X-Complaints-To: abuse@flashnewsgroups.com
Organization: FlashNewsgroups.com
X-Trace: 4f96c4bfb380be197caa731020
Xref: g2news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:11954
Date: 2010-05-24T22:36:10-04:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Adam Beneschan <adam@irvine.com> writes:

> This isn't really about Ada, but I figure it probably affects readers
> of this newsgroup more than many others.

we spend a lot of time talking about Ada tools, so this is fine.

> I've been using GNU Emacs for my Ada sources for a long time.
> Recently, I needed it on a new machine, so I installed a recent
> version of GNU Emacs.  A major annoyance is that the Electric Buffer
> List now truncates file names to 20-22 characters; older versions
> would try to display the whole file name but truncate some of the
> other information.  (I like using an 80-character width.)  This may
> not be a problem for a typical C user, but many of the publicly
> available Ada packages use file names built from all the ancestor and
> child package names, with an .ads or .adb extension (spec/body).  If I
> go to the Electric Buffer List to select a buffer, and I've already
> loaded both the .ads and .adb files, I can't tell from the list which
> is which, and I have to try to guess whether I'm selecting the .ads or
> the .adb file.

I've never used an Electric Buffer List; what command do I invoke to get
it?

I find iswitchb to be very productive. It gives you a list of all
buffers in the mini-buffer area, then does partial name matching on what
you type. Here's the relevant part of my .emacs:

(require 'iswitchb)
(setq iswitchb-default-method 'samewindow)
(add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
(add-hook 'iswitchb-define-mode-map-hook
          (lambda ()
            (define-key iswitchb-mode-map [right] 'iswitchb-next-match)
            (define-key iswitchb-mode-map [left] 'iswitchb-prev-match)
            (define-key iswitchb-mode-map [f12] 'iswitchb-find-file)))

(define-key global-map [f11] 'iswitchb-buffer)

> I asked the Emacs newsgroup whether there was a solution.  There seem
> to be some possible lame solutions, which I haven't looked into, but I
> also recall someone commenting that I should just switch to using
> shorter file names like the rest of the world.  

Nonsense!

Although you should use a wider screen; 80 columns is just too limiting :).

-- 
-- Stephe