RE: Columns don't align in buffer-list

[Drew Adams]

    > is there an easy way to adjust the width of the columns in the
    > buffer-list? Currently long buffer names screw up how the
    > columns line up.

    Any answer? or is this not easily done?

I don't know the answer to your question, but I think it is "not easily
done". I suspect that you are using a version of Emacs that produces a
buffer list such as this (this one is Emacs 20):

.   A Long Buffer Name With Lots Of Words  0 Fundamental
    icicles-cmd.el  228546 Emacs-Lisp   c:/somedir/icicles-cmd.el
    files.el       134157  Emacs-Lisp   c:/Emacs-20.7/lisp/files.el
 %  *Help*                 993  Help
    *scratch*           0  Lisp Interaction
 *  *Messages*        246  Fundamental
 *% *Buffer List*     359  Buffer Menu

This problem has been addressed in Emacs 22 (CVS Emacs). Here is what I see
in Emacs 22. To counter mailer wrapping, I've truncated the File entries
here (using ...).

.   A Long Buffer Name Wi:   0  Fundamental
    icicles-cmd.el      228546  Emacs-Lisp        c:/dre...
    files.el            209193  Emacs-Lisp        c:/Ema...
 %  *Help*                 993  Help
    *scratch*                0  Lisp Interaction
  * *Messages*             399  Fundamental

The long buffer name is truncated, so it doesn't affect the alignment of the
Size column. The name is allowed to intrude into the Size column, but only
because the size in this case is small. Inserting some text into the buffer
leads to this - the buffer name is truncated more, to accommodate the larger
size (291757).

. * A Long Buffer Name: 291757  Fundamental
    icicles-cmd.el      228546  Emacs-Lisp        c:/dre...
    files.el            209193  Emacs-Lisp        c:/Ema...
 %  *Help*                 993  Help
    *scratch*                0  Lisp Interaction
  * *Messages*             418  Fundamental

I think this is a pretty good feature, since it provides the maximum length
for the buffer name, given fixed available column lengths.

However, I agree that it might be useful to easily be able to change the
column widths - e.g. drag them to widen or shorten them, and perhaps have
Emacs save the resulting setting. AFAIK, there is no easy way to change the
column widths. I'll bet that Emacs developers would welcome such a
direct-manipulation feature (patch), however ;-).