Node:ECB Methods-buffer, Previous:ECB Sources-buffer, Up:Basic interactors

The ECB Methods interactor

The ECB-Methods interactor contains all parsed and recognized tags of the current source-buffer. It is called "Method-buffer" because ECB is mostly designed for browsing sourcecode files and for programming-languages these tags are often methods (and variables etc.) To simplify explanations we talk in the following only about methods and variables - but in general the method-buffer can contain any kind of tags (e.g. sections and subsections for texinfo buffers).

Per default the content of the methods-interactor is automatically synchronized and updated with current point of the current source-buffer in the edit-area (see ecb-window-sync and ECB-window synchronizing).

Usage of the methods interactor

• When a method/variable is selected with the primary mouse button (see Using the mouse) or RETURN (see Using the keyboard) the buffer in the edit-window (which one depends on the setting in ecb-mouse-click-destination) will jump to the method/variable.

  IMPORTANT: If you use the POWER-click (i.e. hold down the SHIFT-key while clicking with the primary mouse button (see Using the mouse) or RETURN (see Using the keyboard)) on a node in this buffer then the edit-buffer will be narrowed to the selected tag (see also option ecb-tag-visit-post-actions). But this works only for sources parsed by semantic, not by imenu or etags!

• Clicking on a method/variable with the secondary mouse button or C-RETURN (see Usage of ECB) will jump to the method in another edit window - which one depends on the setting in ecb-mouse-click-destination.
• Right clicking on a method/variable will open a popup menu where different operation on the item under the mouse cursor can be performed. The popup-menu offers commands for filtering the displayed tree-nodes, hiding/narrowing the related tags in the source-buffer and expanding/collapsing one/all tree-nodes according to a certain expansion-level.

Activating/Displaying the methods interactor

Either use one of the predefined layouts which contain the methods interactor (see Changing the ECB-layout) (e.g. via C-c . l c) or create a new ecb-layout via the command ecb-create-new-layout and add a buffer of type "methods" into this new layout (see Creating a new ECB-layout).

Customizing the methods interactor

See ecb-methods for a list of all options currently available for customizing this interactor to your needs.