8.5.4 Window Type

A window describes the portion of the frame that SXEmacs uses to display a buffer. (In standard window-system usage, a window is what SXEmacs calls a frame; SXEmacs confusingly uses the term “window” to refer to what is called a pane in standard window-system usage.) Every window has one associated buffer, whose contents appear in the window. By contrast, a given buffer may appear in one window, no window, or several windows.

Though many windows may exist simultaneously, at any time one window is designated the selected window. This is the window where the cursor is (usually) displayed when SXEmacs is ready for a command. The selected window usually displays the current buffer, but this is not necessarily the case.

Windows are grouped on the screen into frames; each window belongs to one and only one frame. See Frame Type.

Windows have no read syntax. They print in hash notation, giving the name of the buffer being displayed and a unique number assigned at the time the window was created. (This number can be useful because the buffer displayed in any given window can change frequently.)

(selected-window)
     ⇒ #<window on "objects.texi" 0x266c>

See Windows, for a description of the functions that work on windows.