Tell Emacs to open new buffer in specific window

Question

If an Emacs frame is split in several windows and a new buffer is opened, is there a possibility to tell Emacs in which window to open the buffer.

Especially, if one window contains a dired buffer and I want to tell Emacs in which of the other opened windows a new file shall be displayed.

If the Emacs frame is for example split like this:

____________________
|        |         |
|        |         |
|   A    |    B    |
|        |         |
|        |         |
--------------------
|        |         |
|   C    |    D    |
|        |         |
--------------------

Where A,B,C and D are the windows. If A contains a dired buffer, can I tell Emacs to open a new file in a new buffer in window D?

Answer 1

Here's another answer --

You can do what you want using Icicles. In Icicle mode, C-x o, which is normally other-window, is icicle-other-window-or-frame. A prefix arg gives it several alternative behaviors, one of which (for Emacs 24 and later) is to choose a window that will be used by the next buffer-displaying operation (e.g., C-x C-f, C-x b).

That's what happens if you use a double plain prefix arg: C-u C-u C-x o. That invokes command icicle-choose-window-for-buffer-display, which you could of course also bind to any other key.

You choose the target window by name (using completion or cycling etc.).

All that command does is set variable icicle-next-window-for-display-buffer to the window that you choose. Icicles advises commands display-buffer, switch-to-buffer, and switch-to-buffer-other-window so that the next time they are called they use the window that is the value of icicle-next-window-for-display-buffer. (After that invocation they return to their normal behavior.)

This means too that if you have another method of choosing a window, which you prefer (e.g. cycling using one of the other methods mentioned here), then you could modify that method to set icicle-next-window-for-display-buffer to the chosen window, to get the same effect (in Icicle mode). IOW, it does matter how you choose the window; just set the variable value to it and the next buffer-displaying action will use it.