For reading programming (and other) documentation, the Emacs INFO mode is outstanding. So outstanding that I would like to be able to read say, the Emacs Lisp info file and the org-mode info files simultaneously without traversing back up to the beginning of the info tree. Either I've missed something obvious or I will need to hack some Emacs Lisp to achieve the goal. And yet again, someone may have already cracked this nut. So I guess my question is: what is the state of the practice for reading mulitple INFO files in Emacs simultaneously?
Much better to use the multiple buffer feature of emacs. If you are editing the first file and want to start editing the second file, simply use the hot key C-x C-f or the menu selection File->Open File to start the second file. The second file is loaded into its own buffer.
You can have several buffers open at once, but can edit only one at a time. Several buffers can be visible at the same time when you're splitting your window.
At any time, one and only one buffer is selected. It is also called the current buffer.
If you want multiple buffers in one window then C-x 2 splits the windows horizontally. C-x 3 will split it vertically. C-x 1 will close all the windows that are not the current one. C-x o cycles between open panes.
If you look at the documentation for the 'info
command (bound to C-h i by default), you'll find that you can easily create new *info*
buffers with a numeric prefix.
C-u 1 C-h i
C-u 42 C-h i
That creates info buffers named *info*<1>
and *info*<42>
.
Documentation for the 'info
command is (emphasis mine):
Enter Info, the documentation browser. Optional argument file-or-node specifies the file to examine; the default is the top-level directory of Info. Called from a program, file-or-node may specify an Info node of the form `(FILENAME)NODENAME'. Optional argument buffer specifies the Info buffer name; the default buffer name is info. If buffer exists, just switch to buffer. Otherwise, create a new buffer with the top-level Info directory.
In interactive use, a non-numeric prefix argument directs this command to read a file name from the minibuffer. A numeric prefix argument selects an Info buffer with the prefix number appended to the Info buffer name.
Also, by default, in the *info*
buffer, M-n is bound to 'clone-buffer
, which will create a new *info*
buffer looking at the same page.
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