DavidPonce has written library swbuff.el, which lets you cycle among existing buffers in an agreeable fashion. Download it here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/emhacks/.
The following enhancements to swbuff.el are also available:
swbuff-advice.el – allows the use of more than one set of regexp filters. You can specify inclusive and additive-exclusive filters, in addition to exclusionary filters. By JosephLCasadonteJr. Download it here: http://www.northbound-train.com/emacs.html#MyPackages.
Lisp:swbuff-x.el – By KahlilHodgson. New features:
‘swbuff-exclude-mode-regexp’ from the buffer list, but includes any buffers that match ‘swbuff-include-buffer-regexps’ (a couterpoint to ‘swbuff-exclude-buffer-regexps’). If ‘swbuff-this-frame-only’ is non-nil, then exclude buffers displayed in other visible frames.‘swbuff-pre-switch-hook’ – for things you may want to do before switching buffers.‘swbuff-kill-this-buffer’ – for selectively cleaning out your buffer list.‘swbuff-start-with-current-centered’ is non-nil, then buffer list display starts with the current buffer roughly in the middle of the display ordering. This encourages the use of ‘swbuff-previous-buffer’, to get to buffers which would otherwise appear at the end of the list.‘swbuff-left’ and ‘swbuff-right’ – alternative to ‘swbuff-header’, ‘swbuff-trailer’ and ‘swbuff-separator’. Lets you place brackets around the buffer name.‘swbuff-special-buffers-re’ using ‘swbuff-special-buffers-face’.‘swbuff-modeline-format’ – makes the modeline of the status window configurable.‘swbuff-display-intermediate-buffers’ to t makes the buffers be displayed while cycling. This is similar to what PcBufsw? does.Discontinued. Instead nXhtml now contains a version of ControlTABbufferCycling based on ido-mode.
By mistake I used ‘swbuff-switch-to-previous-buffer’ but what I really wanted to use was ‘swbuff-switch-to-next-buffer’. – MaDa