ratpoison provides two commands, fdump and
frestore, that allow the user to save and restore frame
configurations. Let's say, for example, you have split your desktop
into several frames with some windows in these frames and now you want
to quickly bring Emacs forward and browse some code (full-screen of
course) then return to your funky frame configuration. You could use
fdump to dump the frames, hit C-t Q to remove all
frames, and then select your emacs window. When you've finished with
emacs you could use frestore to restore the windows and
frames.
If a frame contained a window when you dumped the frame layout but that window is not present when you restore the layout, the frame holding that window will be blank.
Calling fdump and frestore and copying and pasting
the layout by hand each time is a bit cumbersome. There are some
simple bindings in doc/sample.ratpoisonrc that allow you to
save and restore frame layouts with the press of a key.