Strange behavior from C-c C-o (ivy-occur)

[jwiegley]

I'm switching over to ivy/swiper/counsel from helm, and have run into some odd behavior with C-c C-o:

1. I use counsel-describe-function
2. Immediately press C-c C-o
3. Hit RET on any candidate. First odd behavior: it replacing the current buffer with the help text, but then moves point to some other newly displayed buffer which is neither the candidate list, nor the *Help* text. It would be nice if it kept the candidate list, with my point in the candidate list, and just popped up the *Help* text in another buffer.
4. Move point to the *Help* buffer and hit q
5. Go back to the candidates list, move point to another line, and hit RET again

Because of (3), examining several items from the candidate list requires a rather large number of keystrokes, because the candidates list keeps disappearing, and you never have focus in the *Help* buffer unless you manually select it.

[abo-abo]

I tried to reproduce this, and the bug happens only sometimes. Depending on the frame size, calling describe-function will split the frame either horizontally or vertically:

• when it splits vertically, everything works as intended: RET puts the help buffer in focus, f keeps focus in the occur buffer.
• when it splits horizontally, the bug you describe occurs.

So far, I have no idea how to influence how describe-function splits the frame. I'll have to investigate further later.

[abo-abo]

Looks like once both the occur and the help buffers are in separate windows, f will not disturb the window layout further.

[manuel-uberti]

I can confirm with the horizontal split I have the same behaviour described by @jwiegley.

[mookid]

I confirm I can reproduce as well.

As I understand it, at (3) the window from which counsel-describe-function has been called get the focus if it is still visible, which happens for instance when at least 2 windows are visible to begin with.

[abo-abo]

Thanks, please test.

[manuel-uberti]

Now with horizontal split (after counsel-describe-function), hitting RET on a candidate in the *ivy-occur counsel-describe-function "^counsel"* buffer, point stays in this buffer, and I can see *Help* buffer correctly displayed.

Looks fixed to me. Thank you @abo-abo.