bug#37514: PATCH: Add setting to allow switching to an already-visible buffer by default

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 21:24:45 +0000
> From: Jefferson Carpenter <jefferson@aoeu2code.com>
> 
> A not-uncommon workflow of mine is to have more than one window looking at 
> the same buffer in several
> different places.  Often in one of these windows I switch to some other 
> buffer (perhaps a shell) and then want
> to switch directly back to the same place I was just looking at in main 
> buffer.  However since my main buffer is
> already visible in another window, C-x b (switch-to-buffer) does not default 
> to that buffer, but prefers a buffer
> that is not already visible.  This customization setting allows users to 
> override that behavior so that
> switch-to-buffer does not prefer buffers that are not already visible.

Why is it important what "C-x b" offers as the default?  You can still
type the name of the buffer you want and switch to it.

FWIW, I use the workflow you mention from time to time, and I never
felt the need for such an option, because its effect will be global on
the entire session, and I don't want it everywhere.  I'd need to reset
such an option when I go back to the other workflows, which would be a
nuisance.

And if the above is somehow still not satisfactory, you can always
write a trivial wrapper around switch-to-buffer, which behaves the way
you like.  Why do we need to canonicalize this in Emacs?

Thanks.