I don't like big compilation windows so I have always had (setq compilation-window-height 10) in my .emacs. At some point in time, this stopped working (i.e. the window is simply split in half). Having a little bit of time, I looked into it. It seems that if you have toolbars on the sides, rather than top or bottom (or none at all), compilation-window-height is ignored due to the following line from `compilation-set-window-height': (= (window-width window) (frame-width (window-frame window))) This is true for horizontal (or no) toolbars, and false for vertical toolbars since window-width will be < frame width. Why is this line needed? And how can I find out the toolbar width? The problem is in both 21.2-b17 and 21.0-b64. Thanks, Sean P.S. I noticed a typo in the documentation for `default-toolbar-position' (defcustom default-toolbar-position ;; added for the options menu - dverna (default-toolbar-position) "The location of the default toolbar. It can be 'top, 'bootom, 'left or 'right. This option can be customized through the options menu." Bootom should be bottom. -- Sean MacLennan Just crank that volume to the point of pain. Ottawa, Canada Why waste good music on a brain? http://www.storm.ca/~seanm (Spinal Tap)