{"id":580,"date":"2014-06-19T18:43:41","date_gmt":"2014-06-19T16:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epischel.de\/wordpress\/?p=580"},"modified":"2014-06-24T14:25:01","modified_gmt":"2014-06-24T12:25:01","slug":"emacs-create-a-new-buffer-quickly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.epischel.de\/wordpress\/2014\/06\/emacs-create-a-new-buffer-quickly\/","title":{"rendered":"Emacs: create a new buffer quickly"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love to use Emacs, mostly for org-mode. I also use Notepad++ as an text editor (when using MS Windows), although I would like to use Emacs more. I noticed I choose Notepad++ when I quickly need an editor buffer to paste some text to because Notepad++ has this „New“ icon in its toolbar that creates a new buffer quickly.<\/p>\n

Emacs is easily extendible, so how about creating a „quick new buffer“ function myself? It is really easy.<\/p>\n

To create a new buffer you use Ctrl-x b<\/code> (for function switch-to-buffer<\/code>) and type a buffer name. But even typing in a name is too much for me. Automatically name the buffer „New“ and add a unique number to it! There is a function called rename-uniquely<\/code> which does what it says. Now we can create a function make-new-buffer<\/code>:<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t< View plain text<\/span> ><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t
code<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t
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  1. (defun make-new-buffer ()<\/div><\/li>\n
  2.   "makes a new buffer, uniquely named"<\/div><\/li>\n
  3.   (interactive)<\/div><\/li>\n
  4.   (switch-to-buffer "New")<\/div><\/li>\n
  5.   (rename-uniquely))<\/div><\/li>\n<\/ol>\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

    Super easy: it creates a buffer named „New“ and renames it so that it has a unique name. Bind this to a key, I use F5:<\/p>\n

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    \n\t\t\t\t\t\t< View plain text<\/span> ><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t
    code<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t
    \n\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t
    \n\t\t
    1. (global-set-key (kbd "<f5>") 'make-new-buffer)<\/div><\/li>\n<\/ol>\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

      Put this code in your .emacs<\/code> or whatever.<\/p>\n

      When you have a bunch of buffers called „New<2>“, „New<3>“ etc., take a look at buffer-menu<\/code>. You get a list of all buffers. Now you can operate on them. For instance, mark a buffer for deletion with d<\/code>, repeat for other buffers and execute the command with x<\/code>. Now you have killed a bunch of buffers quickly and easily.<\/p>\n

      If you are new to customizing keybindings and writing custom functions, Sacha Chua wrote a nice article „Read Lisp Tweak Emacs (Beginner 3\/4): How can I make things more convenient?<\/a>„<\/f5><\/p>\n

      Update<\/b>: Xah Lee over at ErgoEmacs has published a similar article<\/a>. He came up with the following, slightly more complex function:<\/p>\n

      \n\n\t\t
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      \n\t\t\t\t\t\t< View plain text<\/span> ><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t
      code<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t
      \n\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t
      \n\t\t
      1. (defun xah-new-empty-buffer ()<\/div><\/li>\n
      2.   "Open a new empty buffer."<\/div><\/li>\n
      3.   (interactive)<\/div><\/li>\n
      4.   (let ((buf (generate-new-buffer "untitled")))<\/div><\/li>\n
      5.     (switch-to-buffer buf)<\/div><\/li>\n
      6.     (funcall (and initial-major-mode))<\/div><\/li>\n
      7.     (setq buffer-offer-save t)))<\/div><\/li>\n<\/ol>\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

        What is the difference? It uses generate-new-buffer<\/code> to generate a new buffer and make sure it has a unique name (line 4). Then it switches to that buffer (line 5). It sets the major mode of the new buffer to the one declared in variable initial-major-mode<\/code>, if any (line 6). Setting buffer-offer-save<\/code> to t<\/code> let Emacs ask you for saving that buffer before exiting Emacs (line 7). <\/p>\n

        <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        I love to use Emacs, mostly for org-mode. I also use Notepad++ as an text editor (when using MS Windows), although I would like to use Emacs more. I noticed I choose Notepad++ when I quickly need an editor buffer to paste some text to because Notepad++ has this „New“ icon in its toolbar that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mf2_syndication":[],"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[72],"series":[],"class_list":["post-580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entwicklung","tag-emacs","kind-"],"kind":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epischel.de\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epischel.de\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epischel.de\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epischel.de\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epischel.de\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.epischel.de\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":597,"href":"https:\/\/www.epischel.de\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions\/597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epischel.de\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epischel.de\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epischel.de\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epischel.de\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}