RE: Looking for some recommended configurations for desktop-save-mode and savehist-mode.

[Drew Adams]

Not sure what the original question was, but
I'll add this info to the discussion, in case
it helps.

Besides explicitly or implicitly saving the
desktop, you can _bookmark_ a desktop.

The vanilla desktop code (desktop.el) doesn't
make it easy to have multiple desktop files,
and it doesn't provide for more than one
desktop file per directory.

There's absolutely no reason that a desktop
file should be tied to a directory.  But that
limitation is built into what desktop.el
provides and expects.  It's a poor design,
but it's never been fixed.

To bookmark desktops you need Bookmark+.

Bookmark+ defines command `bmkp-desktop-read',
which loads a desktop file.  And command
`bmkp-desktop-change-dir', which clears the
current desktop and changes to a desktop file
you're prompted for.  And function
`bmkp-desktop-save' saves the current desktop
to a given file.

Such additions, which facilitate using
multiple desktop files are simple and trivial.
I've proposed that desktop.el offer the same
or similar, but that suggestion and request
has fallen on deaf ears.

That, in itself, doesn't even have anything
to do with bookmarks.  Why is it needed?  To
be able to flexibly create and use multiple
desktop files, located anywhere.

All that's recorded for a desktop is saved
in a file.  Hard-code associating that with
some directory doesn't help in any way; it's
just a hindrance, IMO.

A desktop bookmark just records a desktop
file.  So these desktop enhancements also
facilitate having desktop bookmarks.

Desktop bookmarks let you switch among
desktops by hitting a key - jump among
different bookmarks.

Emacs desktops can save lots of kinds of
state, including buffers (and their points,
marks, and local variables), files, windows,
frames, and variables.

(Bookmark+ also lets you save and restore
other bits of state, e.g. sets of variables,
by jumping to bookmarks.)

https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/BookmarkPlus

https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/BookmarkPlus#DesktopBookmarks