[tlug] XEmacs tabs configuration

[Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>]

<aside>
Damn, I sure wish a certain Dr. Stephen Turnbull was on this list!
</aside>

XEmacs gurus, please step forward and help a lowly initiate deal with the
glorious complexity of everyone's favourite editor!

One of the most wonderful features, IMO, of XEmacs is the ability to display
the titles of all open buffers in tabs just above the active buffer so that
you can easily switch between buffers.

My question is this: how do you get the tabs to display for all open buffers,
instead of just the buffers which have the same major mode as the current one?

According to the XEmacs User's Guide, the tabs are implemented through an
experimental feature called "gutters".[1] Reading on, I found some
documentation on how gutters work:[2]

<quote>
Each tab contains the name of its buffer. The tab for the current buffer in each frame is displayed in raised relief. The list of buffers chosen for display in the buffer tab row is derived by filtering the buffer list (like the Buffers menu). The list starts out with all existing buffers, with more recently selected buffers coming earlier in the list.

Then "uninteresting" buffers, like internal XEmacs buffers, the *Message Log* buffer, and so on are deleted from the list. Next, the frame's selected buffer is determined. Buffers with a different major mode from the selected buffer are removed from the list. Finally, if the list is too long, the least recently used buffers are deleted from the list. By default up to 6 most recently used buffers with the same mode are displayed on tabs in the gutter.
</quote>

All of this talk of "by default" would lead me to believe that one should be
able to customise the behaviour of the gutters in the ways that I need. I took
a look at all the gutter-* functions and variables (with C-h f and C-h v), but
saw nothing that looked obvious.

I searched the XEmacs-Design mailing list archives, but found nothing helpful.
I could not find a more general users list to search. Is there one?

Hopefully someone can help, or else I may have to email Steve himself. And I
do not want to disturb him without a damned good reason. ;)


--Josh

[1] http://xemacs.org/Documentation/21.5/html/xemacs_4.html#SEC7
[2] http://xemacs.org/Documentation/21.5/html/xemacs_4.html#SEC16


-- 
Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>

Associate Systems Administrator
INCOGEN, Inc.