OK, really basic question -- I think it used to be, years ago, the C-x C-b would consistently leave the cursor in the buffer it is now, and make the "other buffer" in the frame the list of buffers. Since version ???, it seems that when I have 2 buffers open in the frame, about half the time the list of buffers is created in the other 'half', as it used to, but the other half the list of buffers replaces the buffer the cursor is in. Does anyone else also see this, and/or better yet, know how to change that behavior so the buffer list consistently shows up in the other buffer, not the current one?

Maybe what I really want is something like this: Invoke one Elisp command/function that replaces the current buffer with a list of buffers, each marked with a single distinct character, e.g. a b c d or 0 1 2 3 .... Pressing one of those keys replaces the buffer with the one selected. If the list of buffers is longer than fits on the screen, a key like spacebar will page down.

I’m a custom-elisp noob, but you could probably achieve this with some wrapper around helm+ace-jump

After some internet searching around, I have found and starting to try ace-jump-buffer. May be exactly what I want.

Yep, as you were describing that I thought of ace/avy

I posted a Magit small issue here: https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/9r1q7t/cannot_use_magitversion_in_custom_build/ Maybe some folks here can help as well