Re: Re: [nbdev] Too many editor tabs?

> Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 18:02:34 -0800
> From: Tor Norbye <[email protected]>
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [nbui]  Re: [nbdev] Too many editor tabs?
> 
> On Mar 20, 2006, at 5:48 PM, Ivan Soleimanipour wrote:
> 
> > buffers are implementation artifacts and it's high time we get rid of
> > them being visible to the user.
> 
> Uhm, we must be talking about different things.
> 
> A buffer to me in the emacs sense is an open "file" I can edit,  
> except it doesn't have to have a representation on disk (e.g. a  
> "file"). For example I can create a new document (like in a word  
> processor) that hasn't yet been saved or even named.
> 
> An editor can hold multiple of these things (buffers) and let me  
> switch between which one is on top (visible/editable).
> 
> I think this is a key part of the user model in any editor, not an  
> implementation artifact.  Is it the term "buffer" you object to or  
> the concept?
> 


If 'vi' manged w/o the concept how can it be a "key" part of the user model?

I suppose as long as one needs to write out a file there is an implicit
notion of buffer but it was never made first class in vi. 
Once you do make it a first class notion, like in emcas then all
kinds of unnatural stuff happens.

For example, 

When I speak of the LRU list it's not the LRU list of "buffers" but
the LRU list of "files I've edited" ... it includes files that
have been saved and files that no-longer have a buffer associated with
them.