ECB (Emacs Code Browser) is a source code browser for Emacs. It is a global minor-mode which displays a couple of windows that can be used to browse directories, files and methods. It supports method parsing for Java, C, C++, Elisp and some more.
NOTE: Experienced ECB users find a complete alphabetical list of all commands and user-options in Interactive ECB commands and Customizable options.
The latest version of ECB can always be found at http://home.swipnet.se/mayhem/ecb.html
To send bug reports, or participate in discussions about ECB, use the mailing list ecb-list@lists.sourceforge.net via http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ecb-list
--- The Detailed Node Listing ---
Installation and first steps of ECB
Overview
Activation and Deactivation
Usage of ECB
Working with the keyboard in the ECB-windows
Using and customizing the ECB-Methods buffer
Changing, customizing and redrawing the ECB-layout
Customizing ECB
All customizable options of ECB
Upgrading and downloading packages
Automatic upgrading of options
Tips and tricks
Entry points for elisp programmers
Known conflicts and bugs of ECB
Known conflicts with other packages
This chapter describes how to install ECB and what are the first steps after activation of ECB
README
in the ECB-directory and install the
required semantic- and eieio-version.
Note: ECB maybe requires a newer version of these libraries than shipped with Emacs or XEmacs. You have to install exactly a version ECB requires and also to make sure that the correct version is loaded into (X)Emacs!
But ECB checks auto. during start-time if the correct versions of semantic and eieio are installed and gives you proper feedback. See Download required packages.
load-path
variable.
You MUST add the ECB-install-directory to the
load-path
either by changing the load-path
variable
directly in your .emacs
or site-lisp/site-start.el
or by
working with a file subdirs.el
.
ATTENTION:
ECB is NOT properly installed if it's directory is not added to
load-path
and for example just loaded by
(load-file "/path/to/ecb/ecb.el")
Do not do this!
.emacs
or site-lisp/site-start.el
the line:
(require 'ecb)
ECB is now ready for use and can be activated by calling M-x
ecb-activate
. Now you can either starting using ECB or you can do
these optional installation steps:
ecb-byte-compile
This byte compiles ECB. You can safely ignore all messages.
(You can also bytecompile ECB from the command-line either by using
the Makefile
or by using the batch-file make.bat
. Just
read the comments in that file you choose.)
ecb.info
The ECB distribution contains a file ecb.info
which is the
online-help of ECB in Info-format. You can install this online help so
it's available in the Top-directory of Info. There are two ways to do
this:
ecb.info
into the info-directory of Emacs
dir
-file.
The supplied Makefile
offers a target install-help
which
does both of these steps. You have just to call make
install-help
with the correct EMACSINFOPATH set (see the comment in
Makefile
). Here is an example:
make EMACSINFOPATH=/path/to/emacs/info install-help
Copy the file ecb.info
into the info-directory of Emacs and
modify the file dir
manually.
But it doesn't matter if you do not execute this step (7.) because the
online help of ECB is always available though, see
ecb-show-help
(see Interactive ECB commands).
This section of the ECB online-help is displayed automatically by ECB after activating ECB first time and describes what are the first basic steps:
Call M-x customize-option RET ecb-source-path RET
1. This lets you customize the option
ecb-source-path
with the customize-feature of Emacs. This opens
a customize-buffer where you can insert all the directories where ECB
can find your source-files. Save your changes with the button "Save
for future sessions" and then throw away this customize-buffer either
by killing it with M-x kill-buffer
or clicking at the button
"Finish".
The online-help of ECB is available via
M-x ecb-show-help
,
(The section you are currently reading is part of the online-help of ECB)
ECB is a global minor-mode which offers a few ECB-windows for browsing your sources comfortable with the mouse and the keyboard. These "special" windows are also called tree-buffer in this manual. Every item in such a tree-buffer, i.e. every line, is also called a node of this tree-buffer. There are currently three different types of ECB-windows/tree-buffers:
In addition to these "special" ECB-windows you have always one or two edit-windows (see The edit-window) in the ECB-frame and at the bottom a compilation-window (optional), where all the output of Emacs-compilation (compile, grep etc.) is shown (see Temp- and compile-buffers).
The following "ascii-screenshot" illustrates the typical layout of
the ECB-frame2:
------------------------------------------------------------------ | | | | Directories | | | | | |--------------| | | | | | Sources | | | | | |--------------| Edit-window(s) | | | (can be splitted in two windows) | | Methods | | | | | |--------------| | | | | | History | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | | | Compilation-window (optional) | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------
In the following subsections the "special" ECB-windows will be explained in detail.
IMPORTANT: If you hold down the SHIFT-key while clicking with the primary mouse button (see Using the mouse) or RETURN (see Using the keyboard) on a source row in the ECB-Sources or ECB-History windows then the source will not be displayed in the edit-window but it will be scanned in the background and all its contents (e.g. methods and variables) are listed in the ECB Methods window (see ECB Methods. So you can get an overlook over the source without changing the buffer in the edit-window.
This chapter describes all aspects of activating and deactivating ECB.
Call M-x ecb-activate and M-x ecb-deactivate to activate or
deactivate ECB. If you want ECB started in a new frame see the option
ecb-new-ecb-frame
(default is nil). ecb-activate
always
raises and selects the ECB-frame even if ECB is already started.
Because ECB is a global minor-mode it can also be (de)activated/toggled by M-x ecb-minor-mode.
There are three options for auto. (de)activation ECB after Emacs-start and also major-mode based.
ecb-auto-activate
ecb-major-modes-activate
ecb-major-modes-deactivate
If activating or deactivating is too strong you can also customize ECB
with these two option only hiding/showing it's ECB-windows
(tree-buffers) on a major-mode basis. At last this is nothing more
than auto. calling ecb-toggle-ecb-windows
(see Interactive ECB commands depending which major-mode is active.
This chapter describes in a detailed manner all aspects of using the Emacs Code Browser.
Normally you get best usage if you use ECB with a mouse. ECB distinguishes between a primary and a secondary mouse-button:
A click with the primary button causes the main effect in each ECB-buffer:
ecb-primary-mouse-jump-destination
.
ecb-primary-mouse-jump-destination
.
Per default the complete node-name of an item in a tree-buffer is displayed in
the echo-area if the mouse moves over it, regardless if the related window is
the active one or not. You can get the same effect if you click with the
primary mouse-button onto a node while SHIFT is held. In general: Via
ecb-show-node-info-in-minibuffer
you can specify in a detailled manner for
every ECB tree-buffer when and which node-info should be displayed in the
minibuffer.
IMPORTANT: Doing this SHIFT-click in the ECB-Sources or ECB-History windows does not only show the node in the echo-area but it also opens the clicked source only in the background and shows all its methods/variables in ECB-Methods; the buffer of the edit-window is not changed! This is very useful to get only an overlook for a certain source.
The secondary mouse-button is for opening (jumping to) the file in the other
window (see the documentation ecb-primary-mouse-jump-destination
).
With the option ecb-primary-secondary-mouse-buttons
the following
combinations of primary and secondary mouse-buttons are possible:
If you change this during ECB is activated you must deactivate and activate ECB again to take effect
In each ECB-buffer mouse-3 (= right button) opens a special context popup-menu for the clicked item where you can choose several senseful actions.
ECB offers the ecb-mode-map
which binds the most important
functions of ECB to keys so you can easily use ECB without a mouse.
IMPORTANT: Do not modify ecb-mode-map
directly! The option
ecb-key-map
defines all ECB keybindings, including a common
prefixkey (This is by default C-c .). If there are conflicts
with other minor-modes or packages you can define very easy another
prefix. Please read carefully the description of ecb-key-map
(see ecb-general).!
In the ECB-buffers RETURN and TAB are the most important keys:
ecb-tree-RET-selects-edit-window
and the function
ecb-toggle-RET-selects-edit-window
which is bound to C-t
in each tree-buffer of ECB!
The RETURN and TAB keys can not be (re)defined with ecb-key-map
!
If you set ecb-tree-navigation-by-arrow
to not nil then the left- and
right-arrow keys work in the ECB tree-window in the following smart way if
onto an expandable node:
Onto a not expandable node the horizontal arrow-keys go one character in the senseful correct direction.
Each displayable key (e.g. all keys normally bound to self-insert-command
)
is appended to the current seach-pattern. The tree-buffer tries to jump to the
first node which matching the current search-pattern either as substring or as
prefix (see below). If no match is found then nothing is done. There are some
special keys:
For better overlooking the current search-pattern is shown in the echo area.
After selecting a node with RET the search-pattern is cleared out. With
ecb-tree-incremental-search
you can specify if the current search-pattern
must be a real prefix of the node (default) or if any substring is matched.
For faster and easier finding the right node in a ecb-window thi incremental search ignores the following non interesting stuff:
This means: Just type in the prefix (resp. a substring) of a class-,
variable-, method-, directory- or filename and ECB will bring you as
fast as possible to the node you want. Incremental node-search uses
the value of case-fold-search
.
Tip: The ecb-minor-mode
offers you in the ecb-mode-map
(customizable via ecb-key-map
) some keys for selecting every window
of the ecb-frame. This makes window-selection a child�s play. For
example you can jump into the method-window by hitting C-c . m.
ECB offers you all what you need to work with the edit-window as if the edit-window would be the only window of the ECB-frame.
ECB offers you to advice the following functions so they work best with ECB:
other-window
delete-window
delete-other-windows
split-window-horizontally
split-window-vertically
switch-to-buffer
switch-to-buffer-other-window
other-window-for-scrolling
The behavior of the adviced functions is:
ATTENTION: If you want to work within the edit-window with splitting
and unsplitting the edit-window(s) it is highly recommended to use the
adviced-functions of ECB instead of the original Emacs-functions (see
above). Per default ECB does advice all of the functions mentioned
above but with the option ecb-advice-window-functions
you can
customizes which functions should be adviced by ECB. Please read
carefully the documentation of this option!
Another interesting option in the context of the edit-window and these
adviced functions is ecb-layout-always-operate-in-edit-window
!
If you call any help in Emacs, e.g. by calling describe-function
, or
if you do a completion in the minibuffer, then Emacs displays the
result-buffer in another window. This behavior you have also in ECB.
If the edit-window is already splitted then the temp-buffer is
displayed in the "other" edit-window otherwise the edit-window will be
splitted first. The variables temp-buffer-max-height
and
temp-buffer-resize-mode
work also correctly with ECB.
Same for all compilation output-buffers (e.g. after a compile
or
grep
) and the variable compilation-window-height
.
This is default behavior of ECB. But there is also another way to display such buffers:
ecb-compile-window-height
you can define if the ECB
layout should contain per default a compilation-window at the bottom
(and if yes the height of it). If yes ECB displays all output of
compilation-mode (compile, grep etc.) in this special window. Same for
displaying help-buffers or similar stuff.
ecb-compile-window-temporally-enlarge
you can allow
Emacs to enlarge temporally the ECB-compile-window in some situations.
Please read the comment of this option. See also the description of
the function ecb-toggle-enlarged-compilation-window
.
ecb-layout-switch-to-compilation-window
you can
modify the switch-to-buffer...-functions to work best if your layout
contains a compilation-window. See the docstring of this option.
ecb-cycle-through-compilation-buffers
(see Interactive ECB commands) you can cycle through all current
open compilation-buffers in the sense of
ecb-compilation-buffer-p
very fast.
But because ECB works best without such a durable compilation-window you should read the documentation of these two options carefully!
This chapter describes how to use and customize the Methods-buffer of ECB.
The ECB-Methods buffer is probably the most important browsing window offered by ECB. It displays all semantic informations of the current buffer in the edit-window.
ECB gets all informations displayed in this Methods-buffer from the semantic-library. This library parses auto. the current source-buffer in the edit-window of ECB and returns all information in form of tokens to ECB which displays them in a browsable form in its Method-buffer. See ECB Methods for information how to use the Methods-buffer.
There are several options to customize which tokens ECB should display in general, if the tokens should be collapsed or expanded, how to fontify them (i.e. syntax-highlighting) and something more.
ecb-show-tokens
ecb-font-lock-tokens
ecb-type-token-display
ecb-token-display-function
These are the most important options for this topic but it is
recommended to have a look into the customize-group ecb-methods
(see ecb-methods) and check all the options offered there!
In almost all cases there is NO need to manually rebuild the method-buffer, because it is always done automatically if necessary. But nevertheless there exist a few rare scenarios where a complete manual rebuild can be necessary. Here is one example:
Depending on the semantic-version: If an elisp-file is parsed which contains a defun X in the middle where the closing ) is missing, then semantic parses only until this defun X is reached and you will get an incomplete ECB-method buffer. In such a case you must complete the defun X and then completely reparse the elisp-file and rebuild the ECB method buffer!
A complete manually rebuild is done by ecb-rebuild-methods-buffer
.
The term ECB-layout means in which windows the ECB-frame is divided. This chapter describes all aspects concerning this layout, especially changing, customizing and redrawing it.
ECB offers several predefined layouts with different sets and also
different locations of ECB-windows. To see which layouts are available
and choose an appropriate one just customize the option
ecb-layout-nr
. The docstring of this option explains how to see
the different available layouts.
If you want to switch fast between some layouts see the option
ecb-toggle-layout-sequence
and the command
ecb-toggle-layout
(see Simulating speedbar)
In addition to the general layout you can specify if the layout should
contain a durable compilation-window at the bottom of the frame, see
ecb-compile-window-height
(see Temp- and compile-buffers).
Maybe you want also change the look&feel of the tree-buffers. Then you
can change the location of the collapse- and expand-symbols and the
indendation of sub-nodes in a tree. See ecb-tree-indent
and
ecb-tree-expand-symbol-before
.
If you have unintenionally destroyed the ECB-layout, you can always
restore the layout with calling ecb-redraw-layout
. This is even
true, if you get messages like "wrong-type-argument window-live-p
#<window 222>".
If the variable ecb-redraw-layout-quickly
is not nil then the redraw
is done by the ecb-redraw-layout-quickly
function, otherwise by
ecb-redraw-layout-full
. But it's strongly recommended to use the
quick redraw only if you have really slow machines where a full redraw
takes several seconds because the quick redraw is not really safe and
may have some drawbacks! On normal machines the full redraw should be
done in << 1s!
With ecb-toggle-ecb-windows
you can hide/show all the ECB windows
without changing the activation state of ECB and also without
deactivating the advices for delete-other-windows
and/or
delete-window
. This is most useful if you use a layout like nr.10
(see Tips and tricks) or if you want to have maximum space for
editing and you don't need the browsing windows all the time.
With ECB you can "browse" in your source-files like with a web-browser. This means ECB stores the current buffer- and window-position relative to the current token4 in the edit-window after
ECB offers two commands ecb-nav-goto-next
(C-c . n) and
ecb-nav-goto-previous
(C-c . p) to go forward and
backward within this navigation historylist. These commands are also
available via the menu "ECB -> Navigate".
Aside normal "location-browsing" this is usefull for example in a
scenario where ecb-token-jump-narrow
is activated:
Now you will edit at the same place in the function.
Per default ECB synchronizes automatically the contents of the ECB-windows/tree-buffers with the current active edit-window (rsp. the current buffer of the edit window):
This windows is synchronized to display the directory where the
source-file which is displayed in the edit-window is located. If the
source-path (i.e. an element of the option ecb-source-path
)
containing this directory is not expanded it will be auto. expanded
according to the value of the option
ecb-auto-expand-directory-tree
(see ecb-directories).
The ECB-sources-buffer contains after synchronizing all the sources of the directory of the "current" source-file displayed in the edit-window. The entry of the "current" source-file is highlighted.
Contains after synchronizing all the tokens of the buffer in the edit-window, i.e. all methods, variables etc... depending of the major-mode.
Highlights the entry of the buffer displayed in the edit-window if this buffer is a source-file.
This feature can be customized with the option ecb-window-sync
:
If active then the synchronization takes place always a buffer changes in the edit window, if deactivated then never. But you can also set this option to a list of major-modes and then the sync. will only be done if the major-mode of the current buffer belongs NOT to this list.
But in every case the synchronization takes only place if the
major-mode of the current-buffer in the edit-window has a relation to
files or directories. Examples for the former one are all
programming-language-modes like c++-mode
or java-mode
,
Info-mode
too, an example for the latter one is
dired-mode
. For all major-modes related to
non-file/directory-buffers like help-mode
,
customize-mode
and others never a synchronization will be done!
It's recommended to exclude at least Info-mode
because it makes
no sense to synchronize the ECB-windows after calling the Info help.
Per default also dired-mode
is excluded but it can also making
sense to synchronize the ECB-directories/sources windows with the
current directory of the dired-buffer in the edit-window.
NOTE: With the command ecb-current-buffer-sync
you can
do a manually synchronization if the automatic one is switched off or
if you just want to do this!
ECB offers the a lot of interactive commands. Some of these commands prompt the user in the minibuffer if called with a prefix argument.
Example: If ecb-clear-history
is called with a prefix argument
then you will be prompted in the minibuffer with:
Clear from history: [all, not-existing-buffers, existing-buffers]
You can choose one of the options enclosed in brackets with TAB-completion; hitting RET direct after the prompt chooses auto. the first offered option (in the example above "all").
These are the interactive commands of ECB (listed in alphabetical order):
ecb-activate | Command |
Activates the ECB and creates all the buffers and draws the ECB-screen
with the actually choosen layout (see ecb-layout-nr ). This function
raises always the ECB-frame if called from another frame. This is the
same as calling ecb-minor-mode with a positive argument.
|
ecb-add-all-buffers-to-history | Command |
Add all current file-buffers to the history-buffer of ECB. |
ecb-clear-history &optional clearall | Command |
Clears the ECB history-buffer. If CLEARALL is nil then
the behavior is defined in the option
ecb-clear-history-behavior otherwise the user is prompted what
buffers should be cleared from the history-buffer. For further
explanation see ecb-clear-history-behavior .
|
ecb-current-buffer-sync &optional force | Command |
Synchronizes the ECB buffers with the current buffer. Unless
FORCE is non-nil then do this only if current-buffer
differs from the source displayed in the ECB tree-buffers.
|
ecb-cycle-through-compilation-buffers &optional choose-buffer | Command |
Cycle through all compilation buffers currently open and display them
within the compilation window ecb-compile-window . If the
currently opened buffer within the compilation window is not a
compilation buffer, we jump to the first compilation buffer. If not we
try to loop through all compilation buffers. If we hit the end we go
back to the beginning.
If CHOOSE-BUFFER is not See also the option |
ecb-deactivate | Command |
Deactivates the ECB and kills all ECB buffers and windows. |
ecb-display-upgraded-options | Command |
Display a message-buffer which options have been upgraded or reset. |
ecb-download-ecb | Command |
Download ECB from the ECB-website and install it. For this the options
ecb-download-url and ecb-download-version must be set
correct, whereas the default value of the former one should always be
correct.
For details about downloading and what requirements must be satisfied see Downloading new versions! After sucessfull downloading the new ECB will be installed in a
directory parallel to current ECB-directory. After adding this new
directory tp |
ecb-goto-window-compilation | Command |
Goto the ecb compilation window ecb-compile-window .
|
ecb-goto-window-directories | Command |
Make the ECB-directories window the current window. |
ecb-goto-window-edit1 | Command |
Make the (first) edit-window window the current window. |
ecb-goto-window-edit2 | Command |
Make the second edit-window (if available) window the current window. |
ecb-goto-window-history | Command |
Make the ECB-history window the current window. |
ecb-goto-window-methods | Command |
Make the ECB-methods window the current window. |
ecb-goto-window-sources | Command |
Make the ECB-sources window the current window. |
ecb-minor-mode &optional arg | Command |
Toggle ECB minor mode. With prefix argument ARG, turn on if
positive, otherwise off. Return non-nil if the minor mode is
enabled.
|
ecb-nav-goto-previous | Command |
Go backward in the navigation historylist, See Back/forward navigation. |
ecb-nav-goto-next | Command |
Go forward in the navigation historylist, See Back/forward navigation. |
ecb-rebuild-methods-buffer | Command |
Updates the methods buffer with the current buffer after deleting the
complete previous parser-information, means no semantic-cache is used!
Point must stay in an edit-window otherwise nothing is done. This
method is merely needed if semantic parses not the whole buffer
because it reaches a not parsable code. Examples when a call to this
function is necessary:
If an elisp-file is parsed which contains in the middle a defun X where the closing ) is missing then semantic parses only until this defun X is reached and you will get an incomplete ECB-method buffer. In such a case you must complete the defun X and then call this function to completely reparse the elisp-file and rebuild the ECB method buffer! If you change only the name of a method or a variable and you want the new name be shown immediately in the ECB-method buffer then you must call this function. |
ecb-redraw-layout | Command |
Redraw the ECB screen. If the variable ecb-redraw-layout-quickly is
not nil then the redraw is done by the ecb-redraw-layout-quickly
function, otherwise by ecb-redraw-layout-full . But it's strongly
recommended to use the quick redraw only if you have really slow
machines where a full redraw takes several seconds because the quick
redraw is not really safe and may have some drawbacks! On normal
machines the full drawback should be done in << 1s!
|
ecb-show-help &optional format | Command |
Shows the online help of ECB either in Info or in HTML format
depending of the value of ecb-show-help-format . If called with
prefix argument, i.e. if FORMAT is not nil then the user is prompted
to choose the format of the help (Info or HTML).
|
ecb-submit-problem-report | Command |
Submit a problem report for the ECB to the ECB mailing-list. This command generates in the edit-window a problem-report which contains already the current values of all ECB options, the current backtrace-buffer if there is any and the current message-buffer. You will be asked for a problem-report subject and then you must insert a description of the problem. Please describe the problem as detailed as possible! |
ecb-toggle-ecb-windows &optional arg | Command |
Toggle visibilty of the ECB-windows. With prefix argument ARG, make visible if positive, otherwise invisible. This has nothing to do with (de)activating ECB but only affects the visibility of the ECB windows. ECB minor mode remains active! |
ecb-toggle-enlarged-compilation-window &optional arg | Command |
Toggle whether the ecb-compile-window is enlarged or not. If
ARG > 0 then enlarge to a sensefull value (see below), if
ARG <= 0 then shrink ecb-compile-window to
ecb-compile-window-height and if ARG is nil then toggle the
enlarge-state.
The |
ecb-toggle-layout | Command |
Toggles between the layouts defined in ecb-toggle-layout-sequence .
Note: This function works by changing the options ecb-layout-nr and
ecb-show-sources-in-directories-buffer but only for current
Emacs-session.
|
ecb-update-directories-buffer | Command |
Updates the ECB directories buffer. |
ecb-upgrade-options | Command |
Check for all ECB-options if their current value is compatible to the defined type. If not upgrade it to the new type or reset it to the default-value of current ECB. Try also to upgrade renamed options. Displays all upgraded or reset options with their old (before the upgrade/reset) and new values. |
Most of these functions are also available via the menu "ECB" and
also via the ECB keymap with prefix C-c . (see
ecb-minor-mode
for a complete list of the keybindings).
This chapter describes how to customize ECB for your personal taste. The first chapter gives an overview of the most important options and the second one lists all options of ECB.
ATTENTION: The best way you customize all the options of ECB
is via the customize-feature of (X)Emacs, i.e. means calling the
commands customize-option
or customize-group
etc. This
is also the strongly recommended way!
But of course you can also use setq
or some elisp-code to
change the values of many but not all of the options. The values of
the following options MUST NOT be changed via setq
or
elisp-code but only with the customize-feature!
ecb-source-path
ecb-tree-RET-selects-edit-window
ecb-font-lock-tokens
ecb-bucket-token-display
ecb-token-display-function
ecb-type-token-display
ecb-show-tokens
ecb-exclude-parents-regexp
ecb-highlight-token-with-point-delay
ecb-window-sync-delay
ecb-show-node-info-in-minibuffer
ecb-key-map
ecb-layout-nr
ecb-compile-window-height
ecb-compile-window-temporally-enlarge
ecb-windows-width
ecb-windows-height
ecb-advice-window-functions
ecb-layout-window-sizes
ecb-mode-line-prefixes
Here are the most important options (it is recommended to check at least the following options before working with ECB):
ecb-source-path
ecb-show-help-format
ecb-auto-activate
ecb-major-modes-activate
ecb-major-modes-deactivate
ecb-key-map
ecb-new-ecb-frame
ecb-primary-secondary-mouse-buttons
ecb-primary-mouse-jump-destination
ecb-tree-expand-symbol-before
ecb-tree-indent
ecb-source-file-regexps
ecb-show-node-info-in-minibuffer
ecb-layout-nr
ecb-token-display-function
ecb-type-token-display
ecb-show-tokens
But to make ECB working best for you it is also recommened to have a look at Customizable options!
All customization of ECB is divided into the following "customize groups". You can highly customize all the ECB behavior/layout so just go to these groups and you will see all well documented ECB-options.
This group contains the following options:
ecb-activate-before-layout-draw-hook | User Option |
Normal hook run at the end of activating the ecb-package by running
ecb-activate . This hooks are run after all the internal setup
process but directly before(!) drawing the layout specified in
ecb-layout (means before dividing the frame into several
windows).
A senseful using of this hook can be maximizing the Emacs-frame for
example, because this should be done before the layout is drawn
because ECB computes the size of the ECB-windows with the current
frame size! If you need a hook-option for the real end of the
activating process (i.e. after the layout-drawing) look at
|
ecb-activate-hook | User Option |
Normal hook run at the end of activating the ecb-package by running
ecb-activate . This hooks are run at the real end of the
activating process, means after the layout has been drawn!. If you
need hooks which are run direct before the layout-drawing look at
ecb-activate-before-layout-draw-hook .
|
ecb-auto-activate | User Option |
Automatically startup ECB when Emacs starts up. This should only be
true if you always want to run ecb-activate .
|
ecb-auto-compatibility-check | User Option |
Check at ECB-startup if all ECB-options have correct values. If not
nil then all ECB-options are checked if their current value have the
correct type. It the type is incorrect the option is either auto.
upgraded to the new type or reset to the default-value of current ECB
if no upgrade is possible. This feature can also upgrade options which
are renamed in current ECB and try to transform the old-value to the
new named option. After startup all upgraded or reset options are
displayed with their old (before upgrade/reset) and new values. See
also the commands ecb-upgrade-options and
ecb-display-upgraded-options . If this option is off then the
user can perform the check and reset manually with
ecb-upgrade-options .
See Auto. option-upgrading.
|
ecb-current-buffer-sync-hook | User Option |
Normal hook run at the end of ecb-current-buffer-sync .
|
ecb-deactivate-hook | User Option |
Normal hook run at the end of deactivating (but before the ecb-layout
is cleared!) ECB by running ecb-deactivate .
|
ecb-debug-mode | User Option |
If not nil ECB displays debug-information in the Messages-buffer. This
is done for some critical situations concerning semantic-tokens and
their overlays (or extends for XEmacs). Normally you should not need
this switched on! But if you get errors like "destroyed extend" for
XEmacs or "wrong-argument-type" concerning overlays for GNU Emacs then
you should switch on this option and submitting a bug-report to the
ecb-mailing-list (ecb-submit-problem-report ) after getting the
error again!
|
ecb-key-map | User Option |
Specifies all keybindings for the ECB minor-mode keymap. The value is
a cons-cell where the car is a common-prefix key for all the
keybindings. The cdr is a list of keybindings each of them a list
again. A keybinding has the following form:
'(<common-prefix-flag> <keysequence> <function>) where
It is highly recommended to use one of the standard keys C-c or C-x as first key of your common-prefixkey! You MUST change this option via customize to take effect! All keysequences must be inserted as a string and must follow the
syntax needed by Text is divided into "words" separated by whitespace. Except for the words described below, the characters of each word go directly as characters of the keysequence. The whitespace that separates words is ignored. Whitespace in the macro must be written explicitly, as in C-c SPC.
|
ecb-major-modes-activate | User Option |
List of major-modes for which ECB shoulb be activated or shown. Do not
mistake this option with ecb-auto-activate . The latter one is
for activating ECB after Emacs-startup (even without opening a buffer)
and this one is for defining for which major-modes ECB should be
activated if the mode goes active!
The behaviour is like follows: If a mode is contained in this option ECB is activated after activating this mode (if ECB was deactivated before) or the ECB-windows are shown if ECB was already active but its windows were hidden. In every case ECB is activated with visible ECB-windows afterwards! For every major mode there can be specified an
There are two additional options:
Any auto. activation is only done if the current-frame is unsplitted to avoid changing unnecessarily or unintentionally the frame-layout if the user just jumps between different windows. |
ecb-major-modes-deactivate | User Option |
List of major-modes for which ECB should be deactivated or hidden.
Specify if ECB should be deactivated or at least hidden if a
major-mode is active. For each major-mode there must be added an
action what should be done:
There are two additional options:
If a major-mode is listed in Any auto. deactivation/hiding is only done if the edit-window of ECB is unsplitted and point is in the edit-window to avoid changing unnecessarily or unintentionally the frame-layout if the user just jumps between different edit-windows, the tree-windows and the compile-window of ECB. |
ecb-minor-mode-text | User Option |
String to display in the mode line when ECB minor mode is active. (When the string is not empty, make sure that it has a leading space.) |
ecb-mode-line-prefixes | User Option |
Prefixes shown in the modelines of the ECB buffers. The displayed prefix then looks like: "[ <PREFIX>[: ]]", means if a prefix is defined for an ECB buffer then a single space is prepended and if there is additional text to display (e.g. the current directory in the sources buffer) then also the string ": " is appended. |
ecb-primary-mouse-jump-destination | User Option |
Jump-destination of a primary mouse-button click (see
ecb-primary-secondary-mouse-buttons ) in an ECB-window, if you
click onto a source or method or variable. Defines in which
edit-window (if splitted) ECB does the "right" action (opening the
source, jumping to a method/variable). There are two possible choices:
If the edit-window is not splitted this setting doesn't matter. Note: A click with the secondary mouse-button (see again
|
ecb-primary-secondary-mouse-buttons | User Option |
Primary- and secondary mouse button for using the ECB-buffers. A click
with the primary button causes the main effect in each ECB-buffer:
A click with the primary mouse-button while the SHIFT-key is pressed
only displays the complete clicked node in the minibuffer. This is
useful if the node is longer as the window-width of the ECB-window and
The secondary mouse-button is for opening (jumping to) the file in the
other window (see the documentation
The following combinations are possible:
If you change this during ECB is activated you must deactivate and activate ECB again to take effect |
ecb-show-help-format | User Option |
The format ecb-show-help shows its online help. Allowed values
are 'info (for the Info format) and 'html (for HTML format). If the
value is 'html then browse-url-browser-function says which
browser is used.
|
ecb-show-node-info-in-minibuffer | User Option |
Define which node info should displayed in a tree-buffer after mouse
moving over the node or after a shift click onto the node.
For every tree-buffer you can define "when" node info should be displayed:
For every tree-buffer you can define what info should be displayed:
Do NOT set this option directly via setq but use always customize! |
ecb-temp-dir | User Option |
Specify a directory where ECB can store temporary files. |
ecb-tree-RET-selects-edit-window | User Option |
In which tree-buffers RET should finally select an edit-window. If a
name of an ECB tree-buffer is contained in this list then hitting RET
in this tree-buffer selects as last action the right edit-window
otherwise only the right action is performed (opening a new source,
selecting a method etc.) but point stays in the tree-buffer.
A special remark for the The setting in this option is only the default for each tree-buffer.
With |
ecb-tree-expand-symbol-before | User Option |
Show the expand symbol before the items in a tree. |
ecb-tree-incremental-search | User Option |
Enable incremental search in the ECB-tree-buffers. For a detailed explanation see Using the keyboard. If you change this during ECB is activated you must deactivate and activate ECB again to take effect. |
ecb-tree-indent | User Option |
Indent size for tree buffer. If you change this during ECB is activated you must deactivate and activate ECB again to take effect. |
ecb-tree-navigation-by-arrow | User Option |
Enable smart navigation in the tree-windows by horiz. arrow-keys. If
not nil then the left- and right-arrow keys work in the ECB
tree-window in the following smart way if onto an expandable node:
If this option is changed the new value takes first effect after deactivating ECB and then activating it again! |
ecb-truncate-lines | User Option |
Truncate lines in ECB buffers. If you change this during ECB is activated you must deactivate and activate ECB again to take effect. |
ecb-truncate-long-names | User Option |
Truncate long names that don't fit in the width of the ECB windows. If you change this during ECB is activated you must deactivate and activate ECB again to take effect. |
ecb-use-recursive-edit | User Option |
Tell ECB to use a recursive edit so that it can easily be deactivated by (keyboard-escape-quit). |
ecb-version-check | User Option |
If not nil ECB checks at start-time if the required versions of
semantic and eieio are installed and loaded into Emacs. It is strongly
recommended to set this option to not nil !
|
ecb-window-sync | User Option |
Synchronize the ECB-windows automatically with current edit window. If
always then the synchronization takes place always a buffer
changes in the edit window, if nil then never. If a list of
major-modes then only if the major-mode of the new buffer
belongs NOT to this list.
But in every case the synchronization takes only place if the
current-buffer in the edit-window has a relation to files or
directories. Examples for the former one are all
programming-language-modes, It's recommended to exclude at least |
ecb-window-sync-delay | User Option |
Time Emacs must be idle before the ECB-windows are synchronized with current edit window. If nil then there is no delay, means synchronization takes place immediately. A small value of about 0.25 seconds saves CPU resources and you get even though almost the same effect as if you set no delay. |
This group contains the following options:
ecb-add-path-for-not-matching-files | User Option |
Add path of a file to ecb-source-path if not already contained.
This is done during the auto. windows synchronization which happens if
a file is opened not via the file/directory-browser of ECB. In such a
situation ECB adds the path of the new file auto. to
ecb-source-path at least temporally for the current Emacs
session. This option defines two things:
The value of this option is a cons-cell where the car is a boolean for 1. and the cdr is a boolean for 2. A value of not nil for the car (1.) is reasonably if a user often
opens files not via the ECB-browser which are not located in any of
the paths of |
ecb-auto-expand-directory-tree | User Option |
Automatically expand the directory tree to the current source file.
There are three options:
|
ecb-cache-directory-contents | User Option |
Cache contents of directories.
This can be useful if The value of this option is a list where each element looks like:
(<dir-regexp> <filenumber threshold> <cache clearing> with
A directory will we only be cached if and only if the directory-name matches one rexexp of this option and it's content-number exceeds the related threshold. Example: A value of Attention: Currently the <cache clearing> part is ignored.
Currently the cache can only be cleared on demand and only the whole
cache can be cleared, see |
ecb-directories-buffer-name | User Option |
Name of the ECB directory buffer. Because it is not a normal buffer
for editing you should enclose the name with stars, e.g. " *ECB
Directories*".
If it is necessary for you you can get emacs-lisp access to the buffer-object of
the ECB-directory-buffer by this name, e.g. by a call of Changes for this option at runtime will take affect only after deactivating and then activating ECB again! |
ecb-excluded-directories-regexp | User Option |
Specifies directories that should not be included in the directories list. The value of this variable should be a regular expression. |
ecb-show-sources-in-directories-buffer | User Option |
Show source files in directories buffer. |
ecb-source-path | User Option |
Paths where to find code sources. Each path can have an optional alias that is used as it's display name. If no alias is set, the path is used as display name. |
This group contains the following options:
ecb-show-source-file-extension | User Option |
Show the file extension of source files. |
ecb-source-file-regexps | User Option |
Specifies which files are shown as source files. Consists of one
exclude regexp and one include regexp. A file is displayed in the
source-buffer of ECB iff: The file does not match the exclude regexp
OR the file matches the include regexp. There are three predefined and
useful combinations of an exclude and include regexp:
In addition to these predefined values a custom exclude and include combination can be defined. |
ecb-sources-buffer-name | User Option |
Name of the ECB sources buffer. Because it is not a normal buffer for
editing you should enclose the name with stars, e.g. "*ECB Sources*".
If it is necessary for you you can get emacs-lisp access to the
buffer-object of the ECB-sources-buffer by this name, e.g. by a call
of Changes for this option at runtime will take affect only after deactivating and then activating ECB again! |
ecb-sources-sort-method | User Option |
Defines how the source files are sorted.
|
This group contains the following options:
ecb-auto-update-methods-after-save | User Option |
Automatically updating the ECB method buffer after saving the current source-buffer. |
ecb-bucket-token-display | User Option |
How ECB displays bucket tokens in the ECB methods buffer. Bucket
tokens are tokens like "[+] Variables", "[+] Dependencies" etc. The
name of the bucket-token comes from semantic but you can define a
prefix, a suffix and a special face for the bucket token.
The default are empty prefix/suffix-strings and
'ecb-bucket-token-face'. But an alternative can be for example |
ecb-exclude-parents-regexp | User Option |
Regexp which parent classes should not be shown in the methods buffer
(see also ecb-show-parents ). If nil then all parents will be
shown if ecb-show-parents is not nil.
|
ecb-font-lock-tokens | User Option |
Adds font-locking (means highlighting) to the ECB-method buffer. |
ecb-highlight-token-header-after-jump | User Option |
If not nil then highlight the token line in the source-buffer after
jumping to this method by clicking in the ECB-method-buffer onto this
method. For highlighting ecb-token-header-face is used.
|
ecb-highlight-token-with-point | User Option |
How to highlight the method or variable under the cursor.
See also |
ecb-highlight-token-with-point-delay | User Option |
Time Emacs must be idle before current token is highlighted. If nil then there is no delay, means current token is highlighted immediately. A small value of about 0.25 seconds saves CPU resources and you get even though almost the same effect as if you set no delay. But such a delay prevents also "jumping backward/forward" during scrolling within java-classes if point goes out of method-definition into class-definition. Therefore the default value is a delay of 0.25 seconds. |
ecb-token-jump-narrow | User Option |
When jumping to a token from the ECB methods buffer narrows the buffer
to only show that token. To display the entire buffer again, click on
a source file or call widen C-x n w.
|
ecb-token-jump-sets-mark | User Option |
Jumping to a token from the ECB-method buffer now sets the mark so the user can easily jump back. |
ecb-methods-buffer-name | User Option |
Name of the ECB methods buffer. Because it is not a normal buffer for
editing you should enclose the name with stars, e.g. " *ECB
Methods*".
If it is necessary for you you can get emacs-lisp access to the
buffer-object of the ECB-methods-buffer by this name, e.g. by a call
of Changes for this option at runtime will take affect only after deactivating and then activating ECB again! |
ecb-post-process-semantic-tokenlist | User Option |
Define mode-dependend postprocessing for the semantic-tokenlist. This
is an alist where the car is a major-mode symbol and the cdr is a
function-symbol of a function which should be used for post-processing
the tokenlist (returned by semantic-bovinate-toplevel ) for a
buffer in this major-mode. Such a function is called with current
semantic tokenlist of current buffer and must return a valid tokenlist
again.
For oo-programming languages where the methods of a class can be
defined outside the class-definition (e.g. C++, Eieio) the function
|
ecb-scroll-window-after-jump | User Option |
How to scroll the window when jumping to a token. |
ecb-show-only-positioned-tokens | User Option |
Show only nodes in the method-buffer which are "jumpable". If not nil
then ECB displays in the method-buffer only nodes which are
"jumpable", i.e. after selecting it by clicking or with RET then ECB
jumps to the corresponding location in the edit-window. Example: With
CLOS or Eieio source-code there can exist some positionless nodes like
variable-attributes in a defclass form which are only displayed
if this option is nil. Displaying such nodes can be sensefull even if
they can not be jumped.
|
ecb-show-tokens | User Option |
How to show tokens in the methods buffer. This variable is a list
where each element represents a type of tokens:
(<token type> <display type> <sort method>) The tokens in the methods buffer are displayed in the order as they appear in this list.
|
ecb-token-display-function | User Option |
Function to use for displaying tokens in the methods buffer. This
functionality is set on major-mode base, i.e. for every major-mode a
different function can be used. The value of this option is a list of
cons-cells:
Every function is called with 3 arguments:
Every function must return the display of the token as string, colorized if the third argument is not nil. The following functions are predefined:
This functionality also allows the user to display tokens as UML. To
enable this functionality set the function for a major-mode (e.g.
If the value is |
ecb-token-jump-narrow | User Option |
When jumping to a token from the ECB methods buffer narrows the buffer
to only show that token. To display the entire buffer again, click on
a source file or call widen (C-x n w).
|
ecb-token-jump-sets-mark | User Option |
Jumping to a token from the ECB-method buffer now sets the mark so the user can easily jump back. |
ecb-type-token-display | User Option |
How to display semantic type-tokens in the methods buffer. Normally
all token displaying, colorizing and facing is done by semantic
according to the value of semantic-face-alist and the semantic
display-function (e.g. one from
semantic-token->text-functions ). But sometimes a finer
distinction in displaying the different type specifiers of type-tokens
can be usefull. For a description when this option is evaluated look
at ecb-token-display-function !
This functionality is set on a major-mode base, i.e. for every major-mode a different setting can be used. The value of this option is a list of cons-cells:
The default value is nil means there is no special ECB-displaying of
type-tokens in addition to the displaying and colorizing semantic
does. But a value like the following could be a usefull setting:
((default ("class" t ecb-type-token-class-face) ("group" nil ecb-type-token-group-face)) (c-mode ("struct" nil ecb-type-token-struct-face) ("typedef" nil ecb-type-token-typedef-face))) This means that in |
This group contains the following options:
ecb-clear-history-behavior | User Option |
Defines which entries of the history buffer should be deleted if
ecb-clear-history is called. Three options are available:
|
ecb-history-buffer-name | User Option |
Name of the ECB history buffer. Because it is not a normal buffer for
editing you should enclose the name with stars, e.g. "*ECB
History*".
If it is necessary for you you can get emacs-lisp access to the
buffer-object of the ECB-history-buffer by this name, e.g. by a call
of Changes for this option at runtime will take affect only after deactivating and then activating ECB again! |
ecb-history-item-name | User Option |
The name to use for items in the history buffer. |
ecb-kill-buffer-clears-history | User Option |
Define if kill-buffer should also clear the history. There are
three options:
|
ecb-sort-history-items | User Option |
Sorts the items in the history buffer. |
This group contains the following options:
ecb-activate-before-new-frame-created-hook | User Option |
Normal hook run before the new ECB-frame is created if
ecb-new-ecb-frame is not nil (otherwise this hook is not
evaluated).
|
ecb-advice-window-functions | User Option |
Use the intelligent windows functions of ECB instead of the standard
Emacs functions. You can choose the following functions to be adviced
by ECB so they behave as if the edit-window(s) of ECB would be the
only windows(s) of the ECB-frame:
For working most conveniantly with ECB it is the best to advice all these functions, because then all the standard shortcuts of these functions are also usable with ECB without doing anything else. Also other packages can interact best with ECB if these functions are all adviced. If these adviced functions are called in another frame than the ECB-frame they behave all exactly like the not adviced versions! But please read also the following: Normally all packages should work correct with ECB and it�s adviced functions but if there occur problems with a package cause of some of these adviced functions ECB offers the following fall-back solution:
Here is an example: Suppose you must deactivating the advice for
|
ecb-compile-window-enlarge-by-select | User Option |
The compile-window is auto. enlarged after selecting it. If not nil
then selecting the ecb-compile-window auto. enlarges it and
deselecting (means selecting another window after point was in
ecb-compile-window ) auto. shrinks it. Enlarging and shrinking
the ecb-compile-window is done with
ecb-toggle-enlarged-compilation-window . See also the
documentation of this function!
|
ecb-compile-window-height | User Option |
If you want a compilation window shown at the bottom of the ECB-layout
then set here the height of it (Default is a height of 5). If you
redraw the current layout with ecb-redraw-layout then the
compilation window (if any) has the heigth you set here. If the number
is less than 1.0 the height is a fraction of the frame height.
If you do not set a durable compilation window then doing a compilation splits temporally the edit window vertically if the edit window is not splitted already or uses the "other" edit window temporally for comilation output if the edit window is already splitted. This is the recommended value for this option! Beware: If you set a durable compilation window then ECB can not guarantee always behaving like a standard Emacs concerning displaying temp-buffers and compilation-buffers. It should work in most cases but maybe not in all. Just try it out. See also the option See Temp- and compile-buffers. Regardless of the settings you define here: If you have destroyed or
changed the ECB-screen-layout by any action you can always go back to
this layout with |
ecb-compile-window-temporally-enlarge | User Option |
Let Emacs temporally enlarge the compile-window of the ECB-layout.
This option has only an effect if The following values are possible:
To restore the ECB-layout after such a buffer-enlarge just call
|
ecb-hide-ecb-windows-hook | User Option |
Hooks run after the ECB windows have been hidden either by
ecb-toggle-ecb-windows or ecb-hide-ecb-windows .
|
ecb-layout-always-operate-in-edit-window | User Option |
Adviced window functions work always in the edit-window. If we are in
an ECB special buffer (methods, directories, etc), and any of the
adviced windowing functions is called (see
ecb-advice-window-functions ), we will select the
ecb-edit-window first. This is useful if you have any functions
that use such functions and you don't want them to just error with a
method complaining that the current buffer can not be split, or
something similar.
Because this may not be desirable in all situations and all adviced
functions this can be enabled separately for every advisable function
(see also For Per default this is enabled for |
ecb-layout-nr | User Option |
Define the window layout of ECB. A positive integer which sets the
general layout. Currently there are 17 predefined layouts with index from 0 to
16. You can savely try out any of them by changing this value and saving it
only for the current session. If you are sure which layout you want
you can save it for future sessions. To get a picture of the layout
for index <index> call C-h f ecb-layout-function-<index>, e.g.
ecb-layout-function-9 .
Currently available layouts (see the doc-string for a picture ot the layout):
Regardless of the settings you define here: If you have destroyed or
changed the ECB-screen-layout by any action you can always go back to
this layout with |
ecb-layout-switch-to-compilation-window | User Option |
Switch-to-buffer...-functions switch to ecb-compile-window . If
the buffer argument of switch-to-buffer or
switch-to-buffer-other-window is an compilation buffer as
defined with ecb-compilation-buffer-p we will select the
ecb-compile-window first. This is useful if you always want
your compilation buffers within the compilation window and now within
the edit window.
Note the difference between
Per default this is only enabled for |
ecb-layout-window-sizes | User Option |
Specifies the sizes of the ECB windows for each layout. The easiest
way to change this variable is to change the window sizes by dragging
the window borders using the mouse and then store the window sizes by
calling the ecb-store-window-sizes function. Next time the
layout is redrawn the values stored in this option will be used.
But be aware: These values are only suitable for the frame-size the
ecb-frame had at the time you store the values by calling
|
ecb-new-ecb-frame | User Option |
Create a new frame at activation time of ECB. |
ecb-other-window-jump-behavior | User Option |
Which windows of ECB should be accessible by the ECB-adviced function
other-window , an intelligent replacement for the Emacs standard
version of other-window . The following settings are possible:
|
ecb-redraw-layout-quickly | User Option |
If non-nil, we will attempt to redraw the layout quickly. Please read
also carefully the documentation of ecb-redraw-layout .
|
ecb-select-edit-window-on-redraw | User Option |
Select the first edit window on ecb-redraw-layout .
|
ecb-show-ecb-windows-hook | User Option |
Hooks run after the ECB windows have been shown either by
ecb-toggle-ecb-windows or ecb-show-ecb-windows .
|
ecb-split-edit-window | User Option |
Sets how and if the edit window should be splitted. But be aware: This option determines only if the edit-window should be splitted at start-time of ECB. |
ecb-toggle-layout-sequence | User Option |
Toggle sequence for layout toggling with ecb-toggle-layout .
Every element of this list has to be a valid layout-number (see option
ecb-layout-nr ).
You can add here as many layouts as you want but to use this option
most effective you should not add more than 2 or 3 layouts so every
layout can be accessed very fast by toggling with
Recommended values are for example:
This option makes only sense if the value is a list with more than 1 element! |
ecb-windows-height | User Option |
The height of the ECB windows in lines when they are placed above or below the edit window. If the number is less than 1.0 the width is a fraction of the frame height. |
ecb-windows-width | User Option |
The width of the ECB windows in columns when they are placed to the left or right of the edit window. If the number is less than 1.0 the width is a fraction of the frame width. |
This group contains the following options:
ecb-directories-general-face | User Option |
Basic face for the ECB directories buffer. It�s recommended to define here the font-family, the font-size, the basic color etc. |
ecb-directory-face | User Option |
Define face used for highlighting current directory in the directories buffer. |
ecb-history-face | User Option |
Define face used for highlighting current history-entry in the history buffer. |
ecb-history-general-face | User Option |
Basic face for the ECB history buffer. It�s recommended to define here the font-family, the font-size, the basic color etc. |
ecb-method-face | User Option |
Define face used for highlighting current method, class or variable in the methods buffer. |
ecb-methods-general-face | User Option |
Basic face for the ECB methods buffer. It�s recommended to define here the font-family, the font-size, the basic color etc. |
ecb-source-face | User Option |
Define face used for highlighting current source in the sources buffer. |
ecb-source-in-directories-buffer-face | User Option |
Define a face for displaying sources in the directories buffer. |
ecb-sources-general-face | User Option |
Basic face for the ECB sources buffer. It�s recommended to define here the font-family, the font-size, the basic color etc. |
ecb-token-header-face | User Option |
Define face used for highlighting the token header after jumping to it by clicking onto a node in the methods buffer. |
This group contains the following faces:
ecb-bucket-token-face:
ecb-default-general-face:
In GNU Emacs 21.X all faces (even the face
ecb-default-highlight-face
) used in the ECB tree-buffers inherit
from this face. Therefore the default attributes like font etc. of a
face used in a tree-buffer can be very easily changed with face
ecb-default-general-face
.
With XEmacs and GNU Emacs 20.X there is no inheritance-feature but the
options ecb-directories-general-face
,
ecb-sources-general-face
, ecb-methods-general-face
and
ecb-history-general-face
offer the choice to use the face
ecb-default-general-face
so also with XEmacs and GNU Emacs 20.X
the basic face-settings can be easily changed just by customizing the
face ecb-default-general-face
!
ecb-default-highlight-face:
In GNU Emacs 21.X all highlighting faces in the ECB tree-buffers
inherit from this face. Therefore the default attributes like font
etc. of a face used in a tree-buffer for highlighting the current
token can be very easily changed with face
ecb-default-highlight-face
.
With XEmacs and GNU Emacs 20.X there is no inheritance-feature but the
options ecb-directory-face
, ecb-source-face
,
ecb-method-face
and ecb-history-face
offer the choice to
use the face ecb-default-highlight-face
so also with XEmacs and
GNU Emacs 20.X the basic face-settings can be easily changed just by
customizing the face ecb-default-highlight-face
!
ecb-directories-general-face:
ecb-directory-face:
ecb-history-face:
ecb-history-general-face:
ecb-method-face:
ecb-methods-general-face:
ecb-source-face:
ecb-source-in-directories-buffer-face:
ecb-sources-general-face:
ecb-token-header-face:
ecb-type-token-class-face:
ecb-type-token-display
.
ecb-type-token-enum-face:
ecb-type-token-display
.
ecb-type-token-group-face:
ecb-type-token-display
.
ecb-type-token-interface-face:
ecb-type-token-display
.
ecb-type-token-struct-face:
ecb-type-token-display
.
ecb-type-token-typedef-face:
ecb-type-token-display
.
Just call customize-face <face-name>
to customize these faces
for your personal taste. Or customize the related option in the group
ecb-face-options.
This group contains the following options:
ecb-download-delete-archive | User Option |
Should the downloaded archive be deleted after successfull
installation or after failure during the installation-process.
Possible values are:
|
ecb-download-url | User Option |
URL where downloadable ECB-versions are located. The ECB-archive-file
(e.g. ecb-1.70.tar.gz) will be appended to this URL and
ecb-download-ecb will try to download this archive.
Note: Normally this URL should never change but who knows... |
ecb-download-version | User Option |
Which version of ECB should be downloaded by ecb-download-ecb .
Valid values are either the string "latest" or a version number like
"1.70". ECB creates automatically the correct URL for download, see
ecb-download-ecb (see Interactive ECB commands).
|
If you run into problems with ECB you can/should send a problem report
to the ECB mailing list ecb-list@lists.sourceforge.net. ECB
offers you a command which does all necessary for you to send a
problem report. Just call ecb-submit-problem-report
! Please read the
documentation of this command, See Interactive ECB commands.
This command creates a problem-report buffer for you. After that you
get a menu "Mail" (dependend on the mail-package used, the menu can
have a different name) with commands to send the problem report. But
for this the varibale mail-user-agent
must be configured right for
your system. If you can�t get working this mechanism you can simply
copy the whole problem-report buffer after filling it out and sending
it with your standard mail-client to
ecb-list@lists.sourceforge.net!
Please read also the documentation of the option ecb-debug-mode
and
switch on the debug mode of ECB (also available in the Help-menu of
ECB!) before submitting a problem-report!
This chapter describes all aspects of upgrading to a newer version of ECB.
The first section describes how to download and install a new package from the web, where "package" means either ECB itself or the required libraries semantic and eieio.
After installing a new ECB-version ECB checks if the values of the customized ECB-options are still compatible. If not ECB does some smart things. This is the topic of the second section.
ECB offers the possibility to upgrade to newer versions direct from the ECB-website. This can be done if the following requirements are satisfied:
With unix-systems these tools are in the
standard-distribution. If you are running any Microsoft Windows system
then you need cygwin5 which offers these tools too. On every
system these tools must reside in the PATH
environment-variable!
If you are behind a firewall and you have to use a proxy you maybe
need the following wget-configuration in your file ~/.wgetrc
:
# Define your proxies (where 8080 and 8081 are examples # for the portnumbers) http_proxy = http://your.proxy.com:8080 ftp_proxy = http://your.ftpproxy.com:8081 # If you do not want to use proxy at all, set this to off. use_proxy = on
If these requirements are satisfied you can download and install both ECB itself and also the required versions of semantic and eieio:
ecb-download-ecb
:
A description for this command you will find in Interactive ECB commands. Check also the options of the customize-group 'ecb-download' (see ecb-download).
ECB will try to download the file:
<URL><PACKAGE>-<VERSION>.tar.gz
where
URL
ecb-download-url
.
PACKAGE
VERSION
ecb-download-version
.
ECB checks at start-time if the required versions of semantic and
eieio (see README
) are installed and loaded into Emacs. If not
you will be asked if you want auto. download and install them. If you
confirm this and the download and install succeeds then you will get a
message-buffer which tells you something like:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Current state of the required packages semantic and eieio:
- semantic 1.4:
Installed in /usr/local/lib/site-lisp/semantic-1.4
- eieio 0.17:
Correct version already loaded!
After adding the new directory to your load-path
and then
restarting Emacs the new package(s) can be activated.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Note: By setting the option ecb-version-check
to
nil
you can prevent ECB from checking correct versions of
semantic and eieio, but it's strongly recommended not to do this!
There are two interactive commands (see Interactive ECB commands):
ecb-upgrade-options
:
Does all necessary beginning with a incompatibility-check for all
options, upgrading/resetting incompatible options and ending with the
display of all upgraded or reset options.
ecb-display-upgraded-options
:
Displays a temp. buffer with all upgraded or resetted ECB-options with
their old and new values.
If the option ecb-auto-compatibility-check
has a non-nil value
(which is the default) then ECB does all this stuff automatically at
startup. This is very recommended!
If you are interested in some background information, read Background information!
Big packages like ECB will be enhanced and developed continously so sometimes a new version must be released. Such packages offer in general a lot of customizable options so probably some of these options change the type or are renamed because the old type and/or name of the option makes no sense in the new release.
Especially options which have changed the type of their value are now
a problem for the user which want to upgrade to the latest
ECB-version: If the user has saved a certain value for option X in its
file .emacs
but the type of this saved value doesn't match the
new defined type in the defcustom-form after an ECB-upgrade then there
can occur serious problems like ECB can not be started anymore or even
Emacs can not be startet without errors.
Until now there was only one way to fix these problems: The user must
manually edit his file .emacs
and remove all entries for
options which have now another type. After this and after restarting
Emacs the new default-values of the type-changed options in the new
ECB-release are active and the user can go on using Emacs and ECB. But
this approach to fix the incompatible-option-problem has two serious
drawbacks:
.emacs
. This should normally not be done and if then only by
old-handed Emacs-users.
.emacs
the new default-value is active, so the user must
re-customize the option X.
Ok, this is one half of the option-upgrade-problem but a new ECB-release can also rename a option from name X to name Y because the new name Y makes much more sense and/or is more mnemonic. If only the name has changed but not the type this is not a serious problem like above but also annoying because the customized value of the old-option X takes no effect in the new release but instead the default-value of the new-option Y is now active. But nevertheless this problem has the drawback number 2 (see above).
The last category of upgrade-problems is a renamed option which has also changed its type.
ECB has a solution for all these problems:
ecb-upgradable-option-alist
which
allows the ECB-maintainers to define special transformings for renamed
options so even the value of an old-option X can be savely transformed
to the new-option Y and the old setting is not lost.
All these checks and transformings are done at beginning of activating
ECB - if the option ecb-auto-compatibility-check
is not nil. If
ECB has recognized incompatible or renamed options it does its
upgrading/reseting-job so all ECB-options have correct types so ECB
can start correct. After ECB is started it displays a list of all
upgraded or resetted option with their old and new values.
This chapter contains some tips and tricks how to deal best with some situations.
There are two basic faces:
ecb-default-general-face
:
Basic face for displaying an ECB-tree-buffer.
ecb-default-highlight-face
:
Basic face for highlighting the current node in an ECB-tree-buffer.
With this faces you can change the basic attributes easily and fast
for ALL ECB-tree-buffers. But you are also able to display each
ECB-tree-buffer with different faces. For further details see the
doc-strings of the faces ecb-default-general-face
and
ecb-default-highlight-face
(just call customize-face
to see the
doc-strings). The options of the group 'ecb-face-options' are also
interesting.
If your screen is very small so you need every sqare-centimeter for displaying the buffer which you want to edit, ECB offers you a special layouts, where only the ECB-methods buffer is displayed on top or on left-side. Here comes what you should/can do to work best with ECB in such a situation:
ecb-layout-nr
to layout nr. 10 (on top) or nr. 11 (on left-side)
ecb-compile-window-height
is nil.
ecb-windows-height
resp. ecb-windows-width
.
ecb-toggle-ecb-windows
(also available via the menu "ECB" and
by C-c . w) or ecb-hide-ecb-windows
to hide the ECB-method buffer
so you get all the place of your screen for editing.
ecb-toggle-ecb-windows
or ecb-show-ecb-windows
to
make the ECB-method buffer visible if not already. If you want select
a method/variable with the keyboard instead with the mouse you should
read the section Using the keyboard in this online help!
The possibility of hiding temporally the ECB windows like described above is also useful for all the other layouts.
You can simulate a speedbar-like layout within ONE frame by doing the following:
ecb-layout-nr
to layout nr. 11, 14, 15 or 16 dependend to
what you like.
ecb-compile-window-height
is nil.
ecb-windows-width
.
ecb-toggle-layout-sequence
and toggle very fast
between several layouts by ecb-toggle-layout
. See the doc-strings!
ecb-show-sources-in-directories-buffer
to not
nil if the choosen layout (see 1. and 4.) contains a
directories-tree-buffer.
This feature will be first available in future versions of ECB.
Emacs 20.X seems to slow down scrolling if there is a horizontal split
in the frame and/or a lot of overlays in the buffer which is scrolled.
This is independend of ECB! But because almost all layouts of ECB uses
horizontal splits of the frame and because ECB is based on semantic
which uses overlays intensively there can be poor scrolling
performance in large buffers, especially with java-buffers in
jde-mode
.
This scrolling performance can be increased a lot if the options
scroll-conservatively
and scroll-step
are set appropriatelly: The
former one should have a value of 0 during ECB is active and the
latter one a value of either 0 or > 1 (the exact value depends on the
power of your machine).
As far as we know this is not a problem of Emacs 21.X or XEmacs. With
these versions of Emacs there should be no scrolling problem even with
scroll-step
has value 1.
If ecb-source-path
contains directories with many files and subdirs,
especially if these directories are mounted net-drives ("many" means
here something > 1000, dependend on the speed of the net-connection
and the machine), actualizing the sources- and/or directories- buffer
of ECB (if displayed in current layout!) can slow down dramatically.
If this is a problem the contents of certain directories can be cached
which increases the speed a lot. See ecb-cache-directory-contents
.
Documentation currently not available.
This chapter describes how ECB can be used/programmed/driven by an elisp-program. This contains:
Variables an elisp-program can use:
ecb-source-path-functions
Look at the documentation of these variables to get a description.
The following hooks are available:
ecb-activate-before-new-frame-created-hook
ecb-activate-before-layout-draw-hook
ecb-activate-hook
ecb-deactivate-hook
ecb-show-ecb-windows-hook
ecb-hide-ecb-windows-hook
ecb-current-buffer-sync-hook
Look at the documentation of these hooks to get a description.
The library tree-buffer.el is ECB independent and can be used for other applications too. But such an application is not allowed to use any of the variables of tree-buffer.el especially not the variable tree-buffers!
tree-buffers
: Only for internal use. It contains all
tree-buffers of current Emacs-instance, means all
tree-buffers of all applications which uses currently
tree-buffers. Every application must store its own collection of
tree-buffers in an own variable! For example: ECB stores its
tree-buffer set in ecb-tree-buffers
!
An application may only use the methods tree-buffer.el provides but no internal variables!
ECB offers for packages which work during activated ECB three macros for easy temporally6 using all original-functions, all adviced functions or only some adviced functions:
ecb-with-original-functions
ecb-with-adviced-functions
ecb-with-some-adviced-functions
For a detailed explanation of each macro read the documentation with
describe-function
!
Documentation will be added in future!
This chapter describes all already known conflicts with other packages and also the known (and currently unfixed) bugs of ECB. If possible then a practicable solution or workaround is described.
Here is a list of known conflicts of ECB with other packages and helpful solutions/hints/workarounds:
The variable vc-delete-logbuf-window
must be set to nil during
active ECB. This can be done with the hooks mentioned in Elisp programming.
The following is only relevant for Emacs 20.X!
ECB works very well with follow-mouse if follow-mouse is turned on
BEFORE ECB is activated (e.g. within the
ecb-activate-hook
). But if you activate follow-mouse first
after ECB is already activated, then the follow-mouse stuff prevents
the complete node-name to be displayed in the echo-area if mouse moves
over it. Because ECB has a much more intelligent mouse tracking
mechanism than follow-mouse the follow-mouse stuff profit from ECB and
works even better and saver as without activated ECB!
With GNU Emacs 20.X ECB must deactivate mouse-avoidance-mode
if the
option ecb-show-node-info-in-minibuffer
activates for at least one
ECB tree-buffer 'if-too-long or 'always. This is done automatically
but only as long ECB is activated.
With activated ECB calendar
does not shrink it�s window to the small
size but splits the window equally. But if you add this to your
.emacs
it works:
(add-hook 'initial-calendar-window-hook (function (lambda () (when (and ecb-minor-mode (ecb-point-in-edit-window)) ;; if no horizontal split then nothing ;; special to do (or (= (frame-width) (window-width)) (shrink-window (- (window-height) 9)))) )))
If the edit-window is already splitted then calling calculator
uses
the whole "other" edit-window for the calculator. With an unsplitted
edit-window the calculator window has it�s normal size of about 2
lines. Therefore it�s recommended to set calculator-electric-mode
during ECB activation to not nil so calculator uses always the
echo-area instead of creating a new small window!
This section describes all currently known bugs of ECB. The maintainers of ECB try to fix these bugs as soon as possible.
This index contains all user commands of ECB:
ecb-activate
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-add-all-buffers-to-history
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-clear-history
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-current-buffer-sync
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-cycle-through-compilation-buffers
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-deactivate
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-display-upgraded-options
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-download-ecb
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-goto-window-compilation
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-goto-window-directories
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-goto-window-edit1
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-goto-window-edit2
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-goto-window-history
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-goto-window-methods
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-goto-window-sources
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-minor-mode
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-nav-goto-next
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-nav-goto-previous
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-rebuild-methods-buffer
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-redraw-layout
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-show-help
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-submit-problem-report
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-toggle-ecb-windows
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-toggle-enlarged-compilation-window
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-toggle-layout
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-update-directories-buffer
: Interactive ECB commands
ecb-upgrade-options
: Interactive ECB commands
This index contains all customizable options of ECB:
ecb-activate-before-layout-draw-hook
: ecb-general
ecb-activate-before-new-frame-created-hook
: ecb-layout
ecb-activate-hook
: ecb-general
ecb-add-path-for-not-matching-files
: ecb-directories
ecb-advice-window-functions
: ecb-layout
ecb-auto-activate
: ecb-general
ecb-auto-compatibility-check
: ecb-general
ecb-auto-expand-directory-tree
: ecb-directories
ecb-auto-update-methods-after-save
: ecb-methods
ecb-bucket-token-display
: ecb-methods
ecb-cache-directory-contents
: ecb-directories
ecb-clear-history-behavior
: ecb-history
ecb-compile-window-enlarge-by-select
: ecb-layout
ecb-compile-window-height
: ecb-layout
ecb-compile-window-temporally-enlarge
: ecb-layout
ecb-current-buffer-sync-hook
: ecb-general
ecb-deactivate-hook
: ecb-general
ecb-debug-mode
: ecb-general
ecb-directories-buffer-name
: ecb-directories
ecb-directories-general-face
: ecb-face-options
ecb-directory-face
: ecb-face-options
ecb-download-delete-archive
: ecb-download
ecb-download-url
: ecb-download
ecb-download-version
: ecb-download
ecb-exclude-parents-regexp
: ecb-methods
ecb-excluded-directories-regexp
: ecb-directories
ecb-font-lock-tokens
: ecb-methods
ecb-hide-ecb-windows-hook
: ecb-layout
ecb-highlight-token-header-after-jump
: ecb-methods
ecb-highlight-token-with-point
: ecb-methods
ecb-highlight-token-with-point-delay
: ecb-methods
ecb-history-buffer-name
: ecb-history
ecb-history-face
: ecb-face-options
ecb-history-general-face
: ecb-face-options
ecb-history-item-name
: ecb-history
ecb-key-map
: ecb-general
ecb-kill-buffer-clears-history
: ecb-history
ecb-layout-always-operate-in-edit-window
: ecb-layout
ecb-layout-nr
: ecb-layout
ecb-layout-switch-to-compilation-window
: ecb-layout
ecb-layout-window-sizes
: ecb-layout
ecb-major-modes-activate
: ecb-general
ecb-major-modes-deactivate
: ecb-general
ecb-method-face
: ecb-face-options
ecb-methods-buffer-name
: ecb-methods
ecb-methods-general-face
: ecb-face-options
ecb-minor-mode-text
: ecb-general
ecb-mode-line-prefixes
: ecb-general
ecb-new-ecb-frame
: ecb-layout
ecb-other-window-jump-behavior
: ecb-layout
ecb-post-process-semantic-tokenlist
: ecb-methods
ecb-primary-mouse-jump-destination
: ecb-general
ecb-primary-secondary-mouse-buttons
: ecb-general
ecb-redraw-layout-quickly
: ecb-layout
ecb-scroll-window-after-jump
: ecb-methods
ecb-select-edit-window-on-redraw
: ecb-layout
ecb-show-ecb-windows-hook
: ecb-layout
ecb-show-help-format
: ecb-general
ecb-show-node-info-in-minibuffer
: ecb-general
ecb-show-only-positioned-tokens
: ecb-methods
ecb-show-source-file-extension
: ecb-sources
ecb-show-sources-in-directories-buffer
: ecb-directories
ecb-show-tokens
: ecb-methods
ecb-sort-history-items
: ecb-history
ecb-source-face
: ecb-face-options
ecb-source-file-regexps
: ecb-sources
ecb-source-in-directories-buffer-face
: ecb-face-options
ecb-source-path
: ecb-directories
ecb-sources-buffer-name
: ecb-sources
ecb-sources-general-face
: ecb-face-options
ecb-sources-sort-method
: ecb-sources
ecb-split-edit-window
: ecb-layout
ecb-temp-dir
: ecb-general
ecb-toggle-layout-sequence
: ecb-layout
ecb-token-display-function
: ecb-methods
ecb-token-header-face
: ecb-face-options
ecb-token-jump-narrow
: ecb-methods
ecb-token-jump-sets-mark
: ecb-methods
ecb-tree-expand-symbol-before
: ecb-general
ecb-tree-incremental-search
: ecb-general
ecb-tree-indent
: ecb-general
ecb-tree-navigation-by-arrow
: ecb-general
ecb-tree-RET-selects-edit-window
: ecb-general
ecb-truncate-lines
: ecb-general
ecb-truncate-long-names
: ecb-general
ecb-type-token-display
: ecb-methods
ecb-use-recursive-edit
: ecb-general
ecb-version-check
: ecb-general
ecb-window-sync
: ecb-general
ecb-window-sync-delay
: ecb-general
ecb-windows-height
: ecb-layout
ecb-windows-width
: ecb-layout
This means first hitting the keys M (Meta- or Alt-key) and x simultaniously, inserting "customize-option" in the minibuffer, hitting RETURN, inserting "ecb-source-path" in the minibuffer and finally hitting RETURN again
This is only one example of the layouts ECB offers, See Changing the ECB-layout
means mouse-2 while CTRL-key is pressed.
e.g. a method, a variable or any other semantic token
cygwin is available at http://cygwin.com/
I.e. regardless of the settings in
ecb-advice-window-functions
!