Commands to switch project and find files in other window/frame

[pkryger]

Motivation

The idea is to have commands that will switch to a project and then find a file
in the project displaying the file in other window or other frame. The natural
bindings for it seem to be C-c p 4 p and C-c p 5 p.

I've been using a custom implementation based on helm-projectile for a last
few years and I think it may be generalised to projectile. I have been
thinking how to do that and since I couldn't decide what would be the best way
to approach the implementation I decided to reach here. For brevity, I will
only consider the other window version, but the same applies for other frame.

Solution 1

Utilise existing functionality and simply
set projectile-switch-project-action to projectile-find-file-other-window
and call projectile-switch-project-by-name. Caveat is that a natural command
name (IMHO the best one), i.e., projectile-switch-project-other-window would
have different semantics to projectile-switch-project. If that's an issue
then perhaps come up with a distinct name the new command,
e.g. projectile-switch-project-and-find-file-other-window. But I think such a
name is too mouthful and would vote for different semantics with a mention in
docstring.

FWIW I implemented a solution that bases on this idea in helm-projectile.

Solution 2

To mimic projectile-switch-project semantics (to a degree), try to find a
function named after the vale of projectile-switch-project-action that
matches the intention. E.g. append -other-window suffix to a current value of
the action variable and if such a function exists then call it. The bit that
doesn't have so clear answer is what to do when such a function doesn't
exist. Calling a hardcoded projectile-find-file-other-window may be
surprising for someone who set the action to something completely different.

Solution 3

To preserve projectile-switch-project semantics add a new
variable projectile-switch-project-other-window-action with default vale
of projectile-find-file-other-window and replicate semantics
of projectile-switch-project. This may be a bit of overkill though.

Please let me know what you think. I am happy to cut a PR with whatever
solution you think is best.