ace-window VS hydra

Thanks that is helpful. I do have a question though. Is there any plugin similar to ace-window? I frequently have a situation where I have two frames (basically two windows) that are connected to the same Emacs process, and I am jumping between buffers in both frames.

Looks good. But https://github.com/abo-abo/ace-window was a game-changer for me :-)

take a look at https://github.com/abo-abo/ace-window

I recently started using workspaces in my workflow, and although I know many packages are available in Emacs such as the ones mentioned in the comments, but what worked for me so far is just make a second frame and use ace-window with the variable aw-scope set to 'frame. And from there I just move one frame to the appropriate workspace in my desktop environment and that's it. It's worth keeping in mind that the buffers are still shared so might not be the perfect workspace experience, but I don't think that matters in Emacs.

Try the ace-window package. I think you're referring to C-x o which is bound to other-window.

Also highly recommend ace-window.

I'd like to use ffap (to open files/dirs) in windows I select with ace-window (https://github.com/abo-abo/ace-window). Similar to what aw-switch-buffer-in-window and aw-switch-buffer-other-window do, but with find-file-at-point instead of buffer selection. Crucially, the point means the where I am when the function is called.

If someone has a big monitor I recommend changing C-x 1 delete-other-windowsto revert to have 2 windows open, (like in this config) and using ace-window to navigate to your many windows.

Ace-Window is meant to replace `other-window' by assigning each window a short, unique label

You can also use Hydra for Emacs.[1] Once I discovered how to configure Hydra, I made it a habit to make one for every new major mode I need to use.

[1] https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra

Have you considered a hydra?

An Emacs specific example: I'm working on a few go projects at the moment and go requires recompilation after changes. Step one was finding auto-recompilers for my projects (I'm using both air and reflex in various projects). Step two was realizing that I spent a lot of time switching to the buffer where the output is printed, so I wrote a little hydra menu to make that easier. Then I found myself having to restart those processes each time I restarted Emacs, so I went digging and found detached to manage the processes. Then I got tired of having to hunt for where the detached output was displayed in my frame so dug into sidebars to manage the windows more effectively.

I think the goal of the hydra package is to provide such functionality.

I would I also encourage anyone who does not want to use modal editing to look into repeat-mode, hydras, and key-chord.

The C-c prefix is designed for you, the user, to use for your nefarious deeds. Some things that may help with both binding and knowing what key does what would be a menu such as hydras or transient menus (which apparently are part of Emacs now so that's new).

For the very same reason, I started to use hydras: https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra - see my config at https://github.com/novoid/dot-emacs/blob/master/config.org

Hydra lets you define mini-modes with limited scope.

general.el also works well with hydra.el. Here's my hydra for window operations - it activates when I press ,w: