ECB 2.20 is released!
********************************************************************************
There is no restriction to max. 2 edit-windows. Now you can split the
edit-area in as many edit-windows as you like and need! Neither the ecb-windows
nor the compile-window will be deleted when you call C-x 1 in an edit-window!
The split-state of the edit-area will be fully preserved when hidding or showing
the ecb-windows!
********************************************************************************
What's new in the new release:
------------------------------
* Changes for ECB version 2.20
** New customization group "ecb-most-important"
This group centralizes the most important options of ECB in one group which
is also offered by the "Preferences" submenu ob the ECB-menu. These are
options you should at least know that they exist.
** The keybinding for the online-help has changed from [C-c . o] to [C-c . h]
This has been done because the key [C-c . o] is needed for the new command
`ecb-toggle-scroll-other-window-scrolls-compile'.
** The options `ecb-major-modes-activate' and `ecb-majors-mode-deactivate' have
been replaced by one new option `ecb-major-modes-show-or-hide'. The purpose
of the old option is now quite out-of-date because:
- ECB supports window-managers like winring.el or escreen.el very well,
- as of version 2.20 ECB has no restrictions about the number of
edit-windows and
- the new option simplifies things a lot.
** The restriction of only two edit-windows has been gone!
*** Beginning with this version 2.20 there are no restrictions about the
window-layout in the edit-area of ECB. This means you can split the
edit-area of ECB in as many windows as you like. The split-state of the
edit-area will be preserved when toggling the visibility of the
ECB-windows and even between activation and deactivation of ECB. Deleting
of certain edit-windows will never destroy the special ECB-windows or the
compile-window. Just work with the edit-area of ECB as if it would be an
extra frame!
*** Option `ecb-split-edit-window' has been renamed in
`ecb-split-edit-window-after-start' because this new name reflects much
better the purpose of this option. In addition there is offered a new
value 'before-deactivation which is also the new default value. This new
value preserves the full state between activations of ECB, i.e. the
visibility of the ECB-windows, the visibility of a compile-window and also
the full split-state of the edit-area. ECB auto. upgrades your setting!
*** Compile-window can now be displayed even when the ECB-windows are hidden.
So now you can have the same compile-window functionality when the
ECB-window are hidden as when the ECB-windows are visible. The state of
the compile-window will be preserved when toggling the ecb-windows or when
maximizing one ecb-windows! So you have the advantage of one special
window for all help-, grep or compile-output also when the ecb-windows are
hidden - a window which will not be deleted if you call
`delete-other-windows' (bound to [C-x 1]) for one of the edit-windows.
*** The option `ecb-primary-mouse-jump-destination' has been renamed to
`ecb-mouse-click-destination' and has also changed its default value to
'last-point. ECB autom. upgrades the old settings.
*** New keybinding [C-c . g l] for selecting the last selected edit-window.
Also available via the ECB-menu. The command is
`ecb-goto-window-edit-last'.
*** Option `ecb-other-window-jump-behavior' has been renamed to
`ecb-other-window-behavior' and has also two new allowed values: 'smart
(the new default) and an arbitrary function-symbol. With the latter one
the user can define his own other-window-behavior and the former one
chooses in a smart and intuitive way the "other window" for going to it
via `other-window' or for scrolling it via one of the "scroll another
window"-functions (e.g. `scroll-other-window'). Thanks to John S. Yates,
Jr. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> for suggesting the new smart behavior. ECB
autom. upgrades the old value of `ecb-other-window-jump-behavior' to the
new option-name.
*** New option `ecb-scroll-other-window-scrolls-compile-window' and new
command `ecb-toggle-scroll-other-window-scrolls-compile' (bound to [C-c .
o]). If this new option is nil then ECB chooses very smart and intuitive
the window which will be scrolled by commands like `scroll-other-window'
(see documentation of the the option `ecb-other-window-behavior'). But
sometimes the user wants to scroll the compile-window from another window.
With this new command the user can fest and easy toggle the behavior ECB
chooses another window for scrolling.
*** Higher compatibility of ECB with other packages
Without the 2-edit-window-restriction ECB is now more compatible with
other packages. For example the package calculator.el can now also being
used without setting `calculator-electric-mode' to not nil - regardless in
how many edit-windows the edit-area of ECB is splitted. Also the package
bs.el (command `bs-show') benefits from the new layout-flexibility. As of
ECB-version 2.20 there should be no conflicts between this package and
ECB.
** Enhancements to the tree-buffers of ECB
*** Enhancements to the popup-menus of the tree-buffers
**** All popup-menus of the tree-buffers can be used with the tmm-library
The already existing command `tree-buffer-show-menu-keyboard' (bound to
[M-m] in every tree-buffer of ECB) accepts now a prefix argument. If called
with a prefix-argument (hit [C-u M-m]) then the popup-menu is displayed
with the tmm-mechanismus (like the Emacs-[menu-bar] is displayed when
`tmm-menubar' is called). Thanks for suggestion to Yvonne Thomson
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
**** Select an edit-window via popup where a source should be opened or a token
should be displayed.
**** The popup-menus can be dynamically extended.
See the new options `ecb-directories-menu-user-extension-function',
`ecb-sources-menu-user-extension-function',
`ecb-methods-menu-user-extension-function' and
`ecb-history-menu-user-extension-function'.
**** All popup-menu-commands respect the setting of the option
`ecb-mouse-click-destination' (formerly known as
`ecb-primary-mouse-jump-destination' - see above).
*** ECB supports the default modeline-mechanisms for deleting other windows.
GNU Emacs binds [mouse-2] in its modeline to `delete-other-window'. ECB
now supports this mechanism by binding a toggle-command to [mouse-2] in
the modeline of each tree-buffer: If all ECB-windows are visible then this
command maximizes the current tree-window and if current tree-window is
maximized all ECB-windows are displayed again. XEmacs binds a popup-menu
with some window commands to [button-3] in its modeline. ECB supports this
mechanism by replacing this menu by a menu which offers exactly 2
commands: Maximizing current tree-window and displaying all ECB-windows.
*** Now all commands for selecting a tree-buffer work even when this buffer is
not visible because another tree-buffer is maximized. If the tree-buffer
is contained in the layout then the layout is redrawn with all its
tree-buffers visible so that tree-buffer can be selected. Same for
maximizing. An example for such a command is `ecb-goto-window-methods'.
*** New option `ecb-maximize-ecb-window-after-selection'.
Automatic maximizing of a tree-window after selecting it. Thanks for
suggestion to John S. Yates, Jr. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
*** Changes to the image-icons of the tree-buffers
**** Alle image-files have been renamed from <IMAGENAME>.xpm to
ecb-<IMAGENAME>.xpm. This was necessary because the icons for "open" and
"close" in Emacs toolbar got superseeded by ECB's icons for "open" and
"close". The problem was, that ECB was using the same names for the icon
files "open.xpm" and "close.xpm" as emacs toolbar does. This problem
occurs if the image-directory of ECB is contained in the `load-path' which
is when ECB is installed in the site-lisp directory of Emacs with the
default subdirs.el of Emacs which adds automatically all subdirectories to
the load-path (and therefore also subdirectories which does not contain
elisp-files but only images - btw: not really smart;-). Thanks for
pointing out that to Roland Schaeuble <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
**** Added all image-icons in a 10-point height.
Thanks to Nick Cross <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> for sizing down the images.
** New default-value for `ecb-post-process-semantic-taglist'.
Now for buffers with major-mode `c-mode' all function-prototypes are
filtered out. For example this is useful for editing C files which have the
function prototypes defined at the top of the file and the implementations
at the bottom. This means that everything appears twice in the methods
buffer, but probably nobody wants to jump to the prototypes, they are
only wasting space in the methods buffer. Of course in C-header-files
function-prototypes will be displayed!
Thanks for suggestion and a first implementation to Rob Walker
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
How to get it:
--------------
Sorry, it's too big to post the sources here...
If you are using ECB >= 1.80 then you can just call "M-x ecb-download-ecb" if
you are online. ECB will then download autom. latest and newest ECB and
install it for you.
Or go to the homepage at http://ecb.sourceforge.net and download it from
there.
General description of ECB:
---------------------------
ECB stands for "Emacs Code Browser" and is a source-code-browser for (X)Emacs.
It is a global minor-mode which offers a language-independent and complete IDE
(Integrated Development Environment) within one Emacs-frame. It displays a
couple of windows that can be used to browse directories, files and
file-contents like methods and variables. It supports source-code parsing for
semantic-supported languages like Java, C, C++, Elisp and Scheme as well as
for source-types supported "only" by imenu or etags (e.g. perl, TeX, LaTeX
etc.). In addition it offers (optional) a durable "compile-window" at the
bottom of the frame which is used to display all help-, grep-, compile- and
etc.-output. The rest of the frame is called the "edit-area" which can be
devided in several (no limit) edit-windows which are used for editing of
sources. Deleting some of the edit-windows does neither destroy the
compile-window nor the browsing-windows.
Here is an ascii-screenshot of what ECB offers you:
------------------------------------------------------------------
| | |
| Directories | |
| | |
|--------------| |
| | |
| Sources | |
| | |
|--------------| Edit-area |
| | (can be splitted in several edit-windows) |
| Methods/Vars | |
| | |
|--------------| |
| | |
| History | |
| | |
------------------------------------------------------------------
| |
| Compilation-window (optional) |
| |
------------------------------------------------------------------
This is only one example-layout - ECB offers a lot of different layouts.
For more details go to http://ecb.sourceforge.net/
Enjoy,
Klaus
Klaus Berndl mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
sd&m AG http://www.sdm.de
software design & management
Carl-Wery-Str. 42, 81739 Muenchen, Germany
Tel +49 89 63812-392, Fax -220
