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5. Customizing ECB

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.

5.1 The most important options of ECB  Which option you must know
5.2 All customizable 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!


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5.1 The most important options of ECB

Here are the most important options (it is recommended to check at least the following options before working with ECB):

ecb-source-path
Where ECB can find your sources. You must set this option!
ecb-show-help-format
Should the online help of ECB be displayed in the standard Info format or in HTML format in a web-browser.
ecb-auto-activate
ecb-major-modes-activate
ecb-major-modes-deactivate
Auto. (de)activation of ECB
ecb-key-map
All ECB-keybindings incl. a common prefixkey (see section 4.2 Working with the keyboard in the ECB-windows).
ecb-new-ecb-frame
Should ECB create a new frame at activation time.
ecb-primary-secondary-mouse-buttons
ecb-primary-mouse-jump-destination
Define how to use the mouse (see section 4.1 Working with the mouse in the ECB-windows).
ecb-tree-expand-symbol-before
ecb-tree-indent
The look&feel of the trees in the tree-buffers. Maybe you like a value of 4 for the latter one if you display the expand-symbol before (see section 4.6.1 Changing and customizing the ECB-layout).
ecb-source-file-regexps
Which files will (not) be shown in ECB.
ecb-show-node-info-in-minibuffer
When and which node-info should be displayed in the minibuffer?
ecb-layout-nr
The ECB layout, means which windows you want to be displayed in the ECB-frame and also the location of these windows (see section 4.6.1 Changing and customizing the ECB-layout).
ecb-token-display-function
ecb-type-token-display
ecb-show-tokens
How to display the entries in the ECB-method window (see section 4.5.1 Customizing the display of the Methods-buffer).

But to make ECB working best for you it is also recommened to have a look at 5.2 All customizable options of ECB!


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5.2 All customizable options of ECB

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.

5.2.1 Group ecb-general  General customizing ECB
5.2.2 Group ecb-directories  Customizing the ECB-directories
5.2.3 Group ecb-sources  Customizing the ECB-sources
5.2.4 Group ecb-methods  Customizing the ECB-methods
5.2.5 Group ecb-history  Customizing the ECB-history
5.2.6 Group ecb-layout  Customizing the ECB-layout
5.2.7 Group ecb-face-options  Customizing options for faces
5.2.8 Group ecb-faces  Customizing the faces
5.2.9 Group ecb-download  Customizing how to download ECB
5.2.10 Group ecb-help  Customizing the online help of ECB


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5.2.1 Group ecb-general

This group contains the following options:

User Option: ecb-activate-before-layout-draw-hook
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: ecb-activate-hook
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.

User Option: ecb-auto-activate
Automatically startup ECB when Emacs starts up. This should only be true if you always want to run ecb-activate.

User Option: ecb-auto-compatibility-check
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 section 7.2 Automatic upgrading of options.

User Option: ecb-current-buffer-sync-hook
Normal hook run at the end of ecb-current-buffer-sync.

User Option: ecb-deactivate-hook
Normal hook run at the end of deactivating (but before the ecb-layout is cleared!) ECB by running ecb-deactivate.

User Option: ecb-debug-mode
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!

User Option: ecb-key-map
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

<common-prefix-flag>
If t then the common-prefixkey defined as car of the value (see above) is used.

<keysequence>
If the common prefixkey is used then the final keybinding is the concatenation of the common-prefixkey (see above) and this keysequence.

<function>:
The function to bind to the key. This can also be a lambda-expression .

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 read-kbd-macro or kbd. This means you can insert the key in the same manner C-h k displays keysequences. Here is the summary of the syntax:

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.

User Option: ecb-major-modes-activate
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 ecb-layout-nr:

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.

User Option: ecb-major-modes-deactivate
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 ecb-major-modes-activate as well as in ecb-major-modes-deactivate then ECB is activated!

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.

User Option: ecb-minor-mode-text
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.)

User Option: ecb-mode-line-prefixes
Prefixes shown in the modelines of the ECB buffers. The displayed prefix then looks like: "[ [: ]]", 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.

User Option: ecb-primary-mouse-jump-destination
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 does the "right" action always in the "other" window related to the setting in this option.

User Option: ecb-primary-secondary-mouse-buttons
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 ecb-truncate-lines is not nil.

The secondary mouse-button is for opening (jumping to) the file in the other window (see the documentation ecb-primary-mouse-jump-destination).

The following combinations are possible:

If you change this during ECB is activated you must deactivate and activate ECB again to take effect

User Option: ecb-show-help-format
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.

User Option: ecb-show-node-info-in-minibuffer
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!

User Option: ecb-temp-dir
Specify a directory where ECB can store temporary files.

User Option: ecb-tree-RET-selects-edit-window
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 ecb-directories-buffer-name: Of course here the edit-window is only selected if ecb-show-sources-in-directories-buffer is not nil (otherwise this would not make any sense)!

The setting in this option is only the default for each tree-buffer. With ecb-toggle-RET-selects-edit-window the behavior of RET can be changed fast and easy in a tree-buffer without customizing this option, but of course not for future Emacs sessions!

User Option: ecb-tree-expand-symbol-before
Show the expand symbol before the items in a tree.

User Option: ecb-tree-incremental-search
Enable incremental search in the ECB-tree-buffers. For a detailed explanation see 4.2 Working with the keyboard in the ECB-windows. If you change this during ECB is activated you must deactivate and activate ECB again to take effect.

User Option: ecb-tree-indent
Indent size for tree buffer. If you change this during ECB is activated you must deactivate and activate ECB again to take effect.

User Option: ecb-tree-navigation-by-arrow
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!

User Option: ecb-truncate-lines
Truncate lines in ECB buffers. If you change this during ECB is activated you must deactivate and activate ECB again to take effect.

User Option: ecb-truncate-long-names
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.

User Option: ecb-use-recursive-edit
Tell ECB to use a recursive edit so that it can easily be deactivated by (keyboard-escape-quit).

User Option: ecb-version-check
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!

User Option: ecb-window-sync
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, 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 in the dired-buffer.

User Option: ecb-window-sync-delay
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.


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5.2.2 Group ecb-directories

This group contains the following options:

User Option: ecb-add-path-for-not-matching-files
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:

  1. Should only the root-part (which means for unix-like systems always '/' and for windows-like systems the drive) of the new file be added as source-path to ecb-source-path or the whole directory-part?
  2. Should this path be added for future sessions too?

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-source-path because then only one path for each drive (windows) or the root-path (unix) is added to the directory buffer of ECB.

User Option: ecb-auto-expand-directory-tree
Automatically expand the directory tree to the current source file. There are three options:

User Option: ecb-cache-directory-contents
Cache contents of directories.

This can be useful 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 of the speed of the net-connection and the machine). For these directories actualizing the sources- and/or directories- buffer of ECB (if displayed in current layout!) can slow down dramatically so a caching increases speed a lot. The value of this option is a list where each element looks like:

 
  (<dir-regexp> <filenumber threshold> <cache clearing> with

<dir-regexp>:
Regular expression a directory must match to be cached.
<filenumber threshold>:
Number of directory contents must exceed this number.
<cache clearing>:
When the cache should be cleared:

  • demand: Cache will only be cleared on user demand. See ecb-clear-directory-cache.
  • auto: Cache will be cleared if the contents of the directory have been changed. ECB can detect this automatically. This works for Unix- but probably not for Windows-systems, because Windows offers no way to detect when the contents of a directory have been changed.
  • <number>: First selection of directories matching the regexp after <number> seconds after last caching time will rescan the directory.

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 ("~/bigdir*" 1000 3600) means the contents of every subdirectory of the home-directory with name beginning with "bigdir" will be cached if the directory contains more than 1000 entries. One hour after the last caching time of such a directory the next selection (clicking onto it in the directories-window, changing buffers so the directory becomes current in the directories-window, etc...) will rescan the directory and update the cache.

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-clear-directory-cache. This will change in a future version.

User Option: ecb-directories-buffer-name
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 set-buffer.

Changes for this option at runtime will take affect only after deactivating and then activating ECB again!

User Option: ecb-excluded-directories-regexp
Specifies directories that should not be included in the directories list. The value of this variable should be a regular expression.

User Option: ecb-show-sources-in-directories-buffer
Show source files in directories buffer.

User Option: ecb-source-path
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.


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5.2.3 Group ecb-sources

This group contains the following options:

User Option: ecb-show-source-file-extension
Show the file extension of source files.

User Option: ecb-source-file-regexps
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.

User Option: ecb-sources-buffer-name
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 set-buffer.

Changes for this option at runtime will take affect only after deactivating and then activating ECB again!

User Option: ecb-sources-sort-method
Defines how the source files are sorted.


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5.2.4 Group ecb-methods

This group contains the following options:

User Option: ecb-auto-update-methods-after-save
Automatically updating the ECB method buffer after saving the current source-buffer.

User Option: ecb-bucket-token-display
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 ("[" "]" nil) which means no special face and a display like "[+] [<bucket-name>]".

User Option: ecb-exclude-parents-regexp
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.

User Option: ecb-font-lock-tokens
Adds font-locking (means highlighting) to the ECB-method buffer.

User Option: ecb-highlight-token-header-after-jump
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.

User Option: ecb-highlight-token-with-point
How to highlight the method or variable under the cursor.

See also ecb-highlight-token-with-point-delay.

User Option: ecb-highlight-token-with-point-delay
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.

User Option: ecb-token-jump-narrow
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.

User Option: ecb-token-jump-sets-mark
Jumping to a token from the ECB-method buffer now sets the mark so the user can easily jump back.

User Option: ecb-methods-buffer-name
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 set-buffer.

Changes for this option at runtime will take affect only after deactivating and then activating ECB again!

User Option: ecb-post-process-semantic-tokenlist
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-group-function-tokens-with-parents can be used to get a much better method-display in the methods-window of ECB, because all method implementations of a class are grouped together.

User Option: ecb-scroll-window-after-jump
How to scroll the window when jumping to a token.

User Option: ecb-show-only-positioned-tokens
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.

User Option: ecb-show-tokens
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.

<token type>
A Semantic token type symbol (function, variable, rule, include etc.) or one of the following:

  • t: All token types not specified anywhere else in the list.
  • parent: The parents of a type.

<display type>
A symbol which describes how the tokens of this type shall be shown:

  • expanded: The tokens are shown in an expanded node.
  • collapsed: The tokens are shown in a collapsed node.
  • flattened: The tokens are added to the parent node.
  • hidden: The tokens are not shown.

<sort method>
A symbol describing how to sort the tokens of this type:

  • name: Sort by the token name.
  • access: Sort by token access (public, protected, private) and then by name.
  • nil: Don't sort tokens. They appear in the same order as in the source buffer.

User Option: ecb-token-display-function
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:

  1. The token
  2. The parent-token of token (can be nil)
  3. The value of ecb-font-lock-tokens.

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. jde-mode) to semantic-uml-concise-prototype-nonterminal, semantic-uml-prototype-nonterminal, or semantic-uml-abbreviate-nonterminal or the ECB-versions of these functions.

If the value is nil, i.e. neither a function for a major-mode is defined nor the special 'default, then semantic-prototype-nonterminal is used for displaying the tokens.

User Option: ecb-token-jump-narrow
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).

User Option: ecb-token-jump-sets-mark
Jumping to a token from the ECB-method buffer now sets the mark so the user can easily jump back.

User Option: ecb-type-token-display
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 c-mode only "struct"s and "typedef"s are displayed with special faces (the specifiers itself are not removed) and in all other modes "class"es and grouping-tokens (see ecb-token-display-function, ecb-group-function-tokens-with-parents) have special faces and the "class" specifier-string is removed from the display.


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5.2.5 Group ecb-history

This group contains the following options:

User Option: ecb-clear-history-behavior
Defines which entries of the history buffer should be deleted if ecb-clear-history is called. Three options are available:

User Option: ecb-history-buffer-name
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 set-buffer.

Changes for this option at runtime will take affect only after deactivating and then activating ECB again!

User Option: ecb-history-item-name
The name to use for items in the history buffer.

User Option: ecb-kill-buffer-clears-history
Define if kill-buffer should also clear the history. There are three options:

User Option: ecb-sort-history-items
Sorts the items in the history buffer.


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5.2.6 Group ecb-layout

This group contains the following options:

User Option: ecb-activate-before-new-frame-created-hook
Normal hook run before the new ECB-frame is created if ecb-new-ecb-frame is not nil (otherwise this hook is not evaluated).

User Option: ecb-advice-window-functions
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 itīs adviced functions but if there occur problems with a package cause of some of these adviced functions ECB offers the following fall-back solution:

  1. Deactivate in ecb-advice-window-functions all the adviced-functions which make problems with other packages.
  2. For every of the adviceable functions <adv-func> ECB offers a interactively function named "ecb-" which does exactly the same as the adviced version of <adv-func>. Use "ecb-" instead the original one to get the proper ECB behavior even if the function is not adviced anymore.
  3. You can bind in ecb-activate-hook the standard-shortcut of <adv-func> to "ecb-" and rebind it in ecb-deactivate-hook to <adv-func>.
  4. Now you have the best of both worlds: The problematic package works and you have the ECB-behavior of <adv-func> as if it would be adviced.

Here is an example: Suppose you must deactivating the advice for switch-to-buffer-other-window. Then you deactivate this function with this option and you can use ecb-switch-to-buffer-other-window instead. Bind the shortcut you normally use for switch-to-buffer-other-window to ecb-switch-to-buffer-other-window (use ecb-activate-hook for this) and rebind it to the original function in the ecb-deactivate-hook.

User Option: ecb-compile-window-enlarge-by-select
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!

User Option: ecb-compile-window-height
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 ecb-compile-window-temporally-enlarge and also the function ecb-toggle-enlarged-compilation-window!

See section 4.4 Temp- and compile-buffers display in ECB.

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-redraw-layout

User Option: ecb-compile-window-temporally-enlarge
Let Emacs temporally enlarge the compile-window of the ECB-layout.

This option has only an effect if ecb-compile-window-height is not nil!

The following values are possible:

To restore the ECB-layout after such a buffer-enlarge just call ecb-toggle-enlarged-compilation-window or ecb-redraw-layout.

User Option: ecb-hide-ecb-windows-hook
Hooks run after the ECB windows have been hidden either by ecb-toggle-ecb-windows or ecb-hide-ecb-windows.

User Option: ecb-layout-always-operate-in-edit-window
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 ecb-advice-window-functions). If the symbol of an adviced function is contained in the value of this option, then the edit-window is first selected otherwise either an error is reported or some other special reaction; see the documentation of the adviced functions for this.

For other-window and other-window-for-scrolling this makes no sense, therefore you can not enable this for both of them.

Per default this is enabled for delete-window, delete-other-windows, switch-to-buffer and switch-to-buffer-other-window.

User Option: ecb-layout-nr
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):

ecb-layout-function-0 ecb-layout-function-1 ecb-layout-function-2 ecb-layout-function-3 ecb-layout-function-4 ecb-layout-function-5 ecb-layout-function-6 ecb-layout-function-7 ecb-layout-function-8 ecb-layout-function-9 ecb-layout-function-10 ecb-layout-function-11 ecb-layout-function-12 ecb-layout-function-13 ecb-layout-function-14 ecb-layout-function-15 ecb-layout-function-16

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-redraw-layout

User Option: ecb-layout-switch-to-compilation-window
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 ecb-layout-always-operate-in-edit-window and this option: If a switch-to-buffer...-function is contained in the former one, then we always jump first into the edit-window regardless of the destination buffer. If also contained in this option then ECB checks the destination buffer and then selects the ecb-compile-window if it is a compilation-buffer in the meaning of ecb-compilation-buffer-p!

Per default this is only enabled for switch-to-buffer. We provide the option for switch-to-buffer-other-window too but the assumption is that when a user asks for a buffer in another window it should always be presented in another window.

User Option: ecb-layout-window-sizes
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-store-window-sizes. Therefore ensure always before calling ecb-store-window-sizes that the ecb-frame has the size it has normally during your work with ECB!.

User Option: ecb-new-ecb-frame
Create a new frame at activation time of ECB.

User Option: ecb-other-window-jump-behavior
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:

User Option: ecb-redraw-layout-quickly
If non-nil, we will attempt to redraw the layout quickly. Please read also carefully the documentation of ecb-redraw-layout.

User Option: ecb-select-edit-window-on-redraw
Select the first edit window on ecb-redraw-layout.

User Option: ecb-show-ecb-windows-hook
Hooks run after the ECB windows have been shown either by ecb-toggle-ecb-windows or ecb-show-ecb-windows.

User Option: ecb-split-edit-window
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.

User Option: ecb-toggle-layout-sequence
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 ecb-toggle-layout. It is also senseful to add layouts which have the same principal outline, i.e. all their tree-buffers are on the same side of the frame and the tree-buffer-"column" (or -"row") has identical size for the layouts.

Recommended values are for example:

This option makes only sense if the value is a list with more than 1 element!

User Option: ecb-windows-height
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.

User Option: ecb-windows-width
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.


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5.2.7 Group ecb-face-options

This group contains the following options:

User Option: ecb-directories-general-face
Basic face for the ECB directories buffer. Itīs recommended to define here the font-family, the font-size, the basic color etc.

User Option: ecb-directory-face
Define face used for highlighting current directory in the directories buffer.

User Option: ecb-history-face
Define face used for highlighting current history-entry in the history buffer.

User Option: ecb-history-general-face
Basic face for the ECB history buffer. Itīs recommended to define here the font-family, the font-size, the basic color etc.

User Option: ecb-method-face
Define face used for highlighting current method, class or variable in the methods buffer.

User Option: ecb-methods-general-face
Basic face for the ECB methods buffer. Itīs recommended to define here the font-family, the font-size, the basic color etc.

User Option: ecb-source-face
Define face used for highlighting current source in the sources buffer.

User Option: ecb-source-in-directories-buffer-face
Define a face for displaying sources in the directories buffer.

User Option: ecb-sources-general-face
Basic face for the ECB sources buffer. Itīs recommended to define here the font-family, the font-size, the basic color etc.

User Option: ecb-token-header-face
Define face used for highlighting the token header after jumping to it by clicking onto a node in the methods buffer.


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5.2.8 Group ecb-faces

This group contains the following faces:

ecb-bucket-token-face:
Face which can be used for displaying bucket tokens in the methods buffer. See also `ecb-bucket-token-display'.

ecb-default-general-face:
Basic face for all ECB tree-buffers. It's recommended to define here the font-family, the font-size, the basic color etc.

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:
Define basic face for highlighting the selected node in an ECB tree-buffer.

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:
Basic face for the ECB directories buffer. Itīs recommended to define here the font-family, the font-size, the basic color etc.

ecb-directory-face:
Define face used for highlighting current directory in the directories buffer.

ecb-history-face:
Define face used for highlighting current history-entry in the history buffer.

ecb-history-general-face:
Basic face for the ECB history buffer. Itīs recommended to define here the font-family, the font-size, the basic color etc.

ecb-method-face:
Define face used for highlighting current method, class or variable in the methods buffer.

ecb-methods-general-face:
Basic face for the ECB methods buffer. Itīs recommended to define here the font-family, the font-size, the basic color etc.

ecb-source-face:
Define face used for highlighting current source in the sources buffer.

ecb-source-in-directories-buffer-face:
Define a face for displaying sources in the directories buffer.

ecb-sources-general-face:
Basic face for the ECB sources buffer. Itīs recommended to define here the font-family, the font-size, the basic color etc.

ecb-token-header-face:
Define face used for highlighting the token header after jumping to it by clicking onto a node in the methods buffer.

ecb-type-token-class-face:
Define face used with option ecb-type-token-display.

ecb-type-token-enum-face:
Define face used with option ecb-type-token-display.

ecb-type-token-group-face:
Define face used with option ecb-type-token-display.

ecb-type-token-interface-face:
Define face used with option ecb-type-token-display.

ecb-type-token-struct-face:
Define face used with option ecb-type-token-display.

ecb-type-token-typedef-face:
Define face used with option 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 5.2.7 Group ecb-face-options.


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5.2.9 Group ecb-download

This group contains the following options:

User Option: ecb-download-delete-archive
Should the downloaded archive be deleted after successfull installation or after failure during the installation-process. Possible values are:

User Option: ecb-download-url
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...

User Option: ecb-download-version
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 section 4.10 Interactive ECB commands).


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5.2.10 Group ecb-help

This group contains the following options:

User Option: ecb-help-html-path
Path where the ECB online help in HTML format resides. This must be the location of the file `ecb.html' which comes with the ECB distribution. If is installed by unpacking the archive available on the ECB website then this is the installation directory of ECB, i.e. where the elisp files of ECB reside. If it is installed as XEmacs-package (e.g. via the package manager of XEmacs) then this is probably not the directory where the elisp files of ECB reside but either the directory "../../html/" or "../../etc/ecb/html/" (both relativ to the elisp directory of ECB).

The path can either be an absolute path or a path relativ to the directory where the elisp files of ECB are.

Normally there should be no need to change this option!

User Option: ecb-help-info-path
Path where the ECB online help in info format resides. This must be the location of the file `ecb.info' which comes with the ECB distribution. If is installed by unpacking the archive available on the ECB website then this is the installation directory of ECB, i.e. where the elisp files of ECB reside. If it is installed as XEmacs-package (e.g. via the package manager of XEmacs) then this is probably not the directory where the elisp files of ECB reside but the directory "../../info/" (relativ to the elisp directory of ECB).

The path can either be an absolute path or a path relativ to the directory where the elisp files of ECB are.

Normally there should be no need to change this option!

User Option: ecb-show-help-format
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.


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