X Window Frame Parameters

Just what parameters a frame has depends on what display mechanism it uses. Here is a table of the parameters of an X window frame; of these, name, height, width, and buffer-predicate provide meaningful information in non-X frames.

name

The name of the frame. Most window managers display the frame's name in the frame's border, at the top of the frame. If you don't specify a name, and you have more than one frame, Emacs sets the frame name based on the buffer displayed in the frame's selected window. If you specify the frame name explicitly when you create the frame, the name is also used (instead of the name of the Emacs executable) when looking up X resources for the frame.

display

The display on which to open this frame. It should be a string of the form "host:dpy.screen", just like the DISPLAY environment variable.

left

The screen position of the left edge, in pixels, with respect to the left edge of the screen. The value may be a positive number pos, or a list of the form (+ pos) which permits specifying a negative pos value. A negative number -pos, or a list of the form (- pos), actually specifies the position of the right edge of the window with respect to the right edge of the screen. A positive value of pos counts toward the left. If the parameter is a negative integer -pos then pos is positive! Some window managers ignore program-specified positions. If you want to be sure the position you specify is not ignored, specify a non-nil value for the user-position parameter as well.

top

The screen position of the top edge, in pixels, with respect to the top edge of the screen. The value may be a positive number pos, or a list of the form (+ pos) which permits specifying a negative pos value. A negative number -pos, or a list of the form (- pos), actually specifies the position of the bottom edge of the window with respect to the bottom edge of the screen. A positive value of pos counts toward the top. If the parameter is a negative integer -pos then pos is positive! Some window managers ignore program-specified positions. If you want to be sure the position you specify is not ignored, specify a non-nil value for the user-position parameter as well.

icon-left

The screen position of the left edge of the frame's icon, in pixels, counting from the left edge of the screen. This takes effect if and when the frame is iconified.

icon-top

The screen position of the top edge of the frame's icon, in pixels, counting from the top edge of the screen. This takes effect if and when the frame is iconified.

user-position

When you create a frame and specify its screen position with the left and top parameters, use this parameter to say whether the specified position was user-specified (explicitly requested in some way by a human user) or merely program-specified (chosen by a program). A non-nil value says the position was user-specified. Window managers generally heed user-specified positions, and some heed program-specified positions too. But many ignore program-specified positions, placing the window in a default fashion or letting the user place it with the mouse. Some window managers, including twm, let the user specify whether to obey program-specified positions or ignore them. When you call make-frame, you should specify a non-nil value for this parameter if the values of the left and top parameters represent the user's stated preference; otherwise, use nil.

height

The height of the frame contents, in characters. (To get the height in pixels, call frame-pixel-height; see section Frame Size And Position.)

width

The width of the frame contents, in characters. (To get the height in pixels, call frame-pixel-width; see section Frame Size And Position.)

window-id

The number of the X window for the frame.

minibuffer

Whether this frame has its own minibuffer. The value t means yes, nil means no, only means this frame is just a minibuffer. If the value is a minibuffer window (in some other frame), the new frame uses that minibuffer.

buffer-predicate

The buffer-predicate function for this frame. The function other-buffer uses this predicate (from the selected frame) to decide which buffers it should consider, if the predicate is not nil. It calls the predicate with one arg, a buffer, once for each buffer; if the predicate returns a non-nil value, it considers that buffer.

font

The name of the font for displaying text in the frame. This is a string.

auto-raise

Whether selecting the frame raises it (non-nil means yes).

auto-lower

Whether deselecting the frame lowers it (non-nil means yes).

vertical-scroll-bars

Whether the frame has scroll bars for vertical scrolling (non-nil means yes).

horizontal-scroll-bars

Whether the frame has scroll bars for horizontal scrolling (non-nil means yes). (Horizontal scroll bars are not currently implemented.)

scroll-bar-width

The width of the vertical scroll bar, in pixels.

icon-type

The type of icon to use for this frame when it is iconified. If the value is a string, that specifies a file containing a bitmap to use. Any other non-nil value specifies the default bitmap icon (a picture of a gnu); nil specifies a text icon.

icon-name

The name to use in the icon for this frame, when and if the icon appears. If this is nil, the frame's title is used.

foreground-color

The color to use for the image of a character. This is a string; the X server defines the meaningful color names.

background-color

The color to use for the background of characters.

mouse-color

The color for the mouse pointer.

cursor-color

The color for the cursor that shows point.

border-color

The color for the border of the frame.

cursor-type

The way to display the cursor. The legitimate values are bar, box, and (bar . width). The symbol box specifies an ordinary black box overlaying the character after point; that is the default. The symbol bar specifies a vertical bar between characters as the cursor. (bar . width) specifies a bar width pixels wide.

border-width

The width in pixels of the window border.

internal-border-width

The distance in pixels between text and border.

unsplittable

If non-nil, this frame's window is never split automatically.

visibility

The state of visibility of the frame. There are three possibilities: nil for invisible, t for visible, and icon for iconified. See section Visibility of Frames.

menu-bar-lines

The number of lines to allocate at the top of the frame for a menu bar. The default is 1. See section The Menu Bar. (In Emacs versions that use the X toolkit, there is only one menu bar line; all that matters about the number you specify is whether it is greater than zero.)

parent-id

The X window number of the window that should be the parent of this one. Specifying this lets you create an Emacs window inside some other application's window. (It is not certain this will be implemented; try it and see if it works.)

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