Issue with using ediff and perspective [sorted] about perspective-el HOT 6 CLOSED

I followed your sequence of steps and cannot reproduce this problem. Ediff works fine for me. Are you using a recent version of Perspective? Several people contributed a bunch of work a year or two ago to eliminate “Using killed perspective” errors. Have you tried this with a minimal configuration (i.e. with just Perspective installed)?

from perspective-el.

Are you using a recent version of Perspective?

I believe I am. I run list-packages followed U to update anything Emacs asks for, daily. Emacs version is 28.2 and installed perspective version is 20220921.346

Have you tried this with a minimal configuration

Yes, I can reproduce the issue on a fresh settings. This is what I've done. I run Emacs via env HOME=/path/to/new-home emacs. The settings are in /path/to/new-home/.emacs.d/init.el. Here's the init.el:

;; Initial settings
(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/"))
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("elpa" . "https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/"))
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("org" . "http://orgmode.org/elpa/"))
(package-initialize)
(unless package-archive-contents
  (package-refresh-contents))

;; Load use-package
(unless (package-installed-p 'use-package)
  (package-install 'use-package))
(setq use-package-always-ensure t)

;; Load perspective
(use-package perspective
  :bind
  ("C-x C-b" . persp-list-buffers)         ; or use a nicer switcher, see below
  :custom
  (persp-mode-prefix-key (kbd "C-c M-p"))  ; pick your own prefix key here
  :init
  (persp-mode))

(custom-set-variables
 ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
 ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
 ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
 ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 '(package-selected-packages '(perspective use-package)))
(custom-set-faces
 ;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom.
 ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
 ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
 ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 )

Note, the last part custom-set-variables was added by Emacs.

When Emacs finishes initial settings, I've got the following warnings:

21.346/’

Compiling internal form(s) at Thu Feb  9 11:18:50 2023
Warning (bytecomp): custom-declare-variable `persp-state-default-file' docstring wider than 80 characters
Warning (bytecomp): custom-declare-variable `persp-avoid-killing-last-buffer-in-perspective' docstring wider than 80 characters
Warning (bytecomp):  docstring wider than 80 characters [3 times]

At this point I restart Emacs and I've got the exact same issue if follow the above routine.

from perspective-el.

That's so strange. Can you please start Emacs like this;

emacs -Q -l /path/to/emacs/packages/perspective-20220921.346/perspective-autoloads.el

You can figure out the path by evaluating package-user-dir (using M-:).

Then paste this code into *scratch*:

(persp-mode 1)
(persp-switch "test")
(ediff-files "~/1.txt" "~/2.txt")

Run M-x eval-buffer. Ignore warnings about persp-mode-prefix-key.

Then quit ediff (q) and run M-x persp-switch. main should be available.

This works perfectly for me in Emacs 28.2 on Linux.

from perspective-el.

Hi again,

Thanks for helping with me with this. Unfortunately, the same issue is still occurring even though I have followed your instructions. The [main] disappears once I leave ediff. It is back if I create a new perspective, say [aaa]. However, trying to get to [test] issues "Using killed perspective 'test'".

I did not think of it before but perhaps it is time to say how I run Emacs. So my system is Linux Ubuntu-Home 5.15.0-58-generic #64~20.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 6 16:42:31 UTC 2023 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux via uname -a and I installed Emacs using snap; snap --version gives me:

snap    2.58+20.04
snapd   2.58+20.04
series  16
ubuntu  20.04
kernel  5.15.0-58-generic

snap list:

Name           Version     Rev    Tracking         Publisher       Notes
...
emacs          28.2        1808   latest/stable    alexmurray*     classic
...

EDIT. I tested this issue on 28.2 on Windows 10--with the same settings as on Ubuntu. I followed the instructions in the last comment and I could reproduce the same issue. I also added a GIF in case I am doing an obvious wrong.

I don't know what it is and might need to accept to live with it ¯\(ツ)/¯

from perspective-el.

After watching your screencast, I have an idea. Try this:

(customize-set-variable 'ediff-window-setup-function 'ediff-setup-windows-plain)

This forces Ediff to use the same frame for its control panel as the frame from which it's launched (which I consider cleaner anyway). Because Perspective state is tightly bound to originating frames, the separate Ediff control panel may have confused it. Try your use case again and see what happens (you probably don't need the -Q incantation and can just test with your normal configuration).

from perspective-el.

Yes, this works. Also, I prefer when it displays its menu in the echo area.

Thanks

EDIT. One question though. How would you suggest to run the line:

(customize-set-variable 'ediff-window-setup-function 'ediff-setup-windows-plain)

as hook or just put it in a init.el?

from perspective-el.