How do I stop Emacs from changing my split buffers?

Question

I have a number of splits open, looking at various buffers. But when I for example check the help on a function it will replace one of the splits with the help buffer. Once I'm done reading the help I have to go back to the correct buffer manually which is a pain. How do I get Emacs to be nicer to my buffers?

Update: Help will let you press q to go back to the previous buffer. But causing the Emacs backtrace to pop up also steals one of my buffer windows and it doesn't have a q.

Update: Backtrace DOES have q to go back. My original question still remains: how do I ask Emacs not to steal one of my splits?

Answer 1

Adding the line

(push "*Help*" special-display-buffer-names)

to the init file should make subsequent invocations of the help buffer to appear in its own frame(what the desktop usually calls "window"), and leave the original frame with its configuration alone.

See Special Buffer Frames.