ECB - the Emacs Code Browser

Node:ecb-layout, Next:ecb-compilation, Previous:ecb-analyse, Up:Customizable options

Group ecb-layout

This group contains settings for the screen-layout of the 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).

advice-window-functions User Option

Advice functions to be more intelligent if used with ECB. 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:

other-window For this one see also the option ecb-other-window-behavior!
delete-window
delete-other-windows
delete-windows-on
split-window-horizontally
split-window-vertically
split-window If this advice is enabled then split-window-vertically and split-window-horizontally are autom. enabled too!
switch-to-buffer
switch-to-buffer-other-window
display-buffer Especially if ecb-compile-window-height is not nil it is strongly recommended not to disable this advice!
other-window-for-scrolling If this advice is enabled then the behavior of the following functions depends on ecb-other-window-behavior:

scroll-other-window
scroll-other-window-down
beginning-of-buffer-other-window
end-of-buffer-other-window

balance-windows: Only the edit-windows are balanced

For working most conveniently 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:

Deactivate in ecb-advice-window-functions all the adviced-functions which make problems with other packages.
For every of the advice-able functions <adv-func> ECB offers a interactively function named "ecb-<adv-func>" which does exactly the same as the adviced version of <adv-func>. Use "ecb-<adv-func>" instead the original one to get the proper ECB behavior even if the function is not adviced anymore.
You can bind in ecb-activate-hook the standard-shortcut of <adv-func> to "ecb-<adv-func>" and rebind it in ecb-deactivate-hook to <adv-func>.
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.

advice-window-functions-signal-error User Option

Signal an error if an adviced function can not do its job. If not nil then an error is signaled if one of the adviced functions (see ecb-advice-window-functions) can not do its job. So for example if the user tries to split the compile-window or an ecb-tree-window or if one tries to switch to another buffer in one of the ecb-tree-windows. For details see the documentation of each of the adviced functions to get info when an error is signaled.
If this option is nil then no error is signaled but the called adviced function does simply nothing.
Default is nil but it can also be useful to signal errors - so you see when call a function in a situation which is not supported by this function.

fix-window-size User Option

Fix size of the ECB-windows/buffers even after frame-resizing. The fix type (valid values are nil, t, width and height) can either be set on a layout-basis (means a different value for each layout) or one value can be set for all layouts.
For a detailed description of the valid values see description of window-size-fixed which is newly introduced in GNU Emacs 21 and is only available there. Therefore this option takes only effect with GNU Emacs 21.
Note1: Manually resizing the ECB-windows via enlarge-window, shrink-window, mouse-drag-vertical-line and mouse-drag-mode-line is still possible even if the window-sizes are fixed for frame-resizing!
Note2: The description of window-size-fixed in the Elisp-info-manual is more detailed than the description offered by C-h v!
Note3: With current Emacs 21.2.X there seems to be no distinction between width, height and t. Therefore this option takes no effect (means all ecb-windows have always unfixed sizes) if ecb-compile-window-height is not nil.
Per default no window-size fixing has been done.

hide-ecb-windows-after-hook User Option

Hooks run direct after the ECB windows have been hidden. Hiding was done either by ecb-toggle-ecb-windows or ecb-hide-ecb-windows.
IMPORTANT: Hiding the ECB-windows is internally done by calling ecb-redraw-layout and therefore also the hooks ecb-redraw-layout-before-hook and ecb-redraw-layout-after-hook are evaluated. The hook-sequence is analogous to that described in ecb-show-ecb-windows-after-hook.

hide-ecb-windows-before-hook User Option

Hook run direct before the ECB windows will be hidden. Hiding is done either by ecb-toggle-ecb-windows or ecb-hide-ecb-windows. This means that at runtime of this hook all the ECB-tree-windows of current layout are visible.
IMPORTANT: Hiding the ECB-windows is internally done by calling ecb-redraw-layout and therefore also the hooks ecb-redraw-layout-before-hook and ecb-redraw-layout-after-hook are evaluated. The hook-sequence is analogous to that described in ecb-show-ecb-windows-before-hook.

ignore-display-buffer-function User Option

Adviced display-buffer ignores display-buffer-function. This means, that the adviced version of display-buffer (see ecb-advice-window-functions) ignores the value of display-buffer-function when called for the ecb-frame. If this variable should not be ignored then the function of display-buffer-function is completely responsible which window is used for the buffer to display - no smart ECB-logic will help to deal best with the ECB-window-layout! You can define if and when display-buffer-function should be ignored:

only when persistent compile window is used - i.e. if ecb-compile-window-height is not nil
always when ECB is active - that means ignore when ECB is active otherwise not - this is the default value
never, the adviced version of display-buffer always uses the value of display-buffer-function if the value is a function.

ignore-special-display User Option

Ignore special-display-handling. This means, that all values of special-display-function, special-display-buffer-names and special-display-regexps are ignored

only when persistent compile window is used - i.e. if ecb-compile-window-height is not nil - this is the default value.
always when ECB is active - that means no special-display-handling of buffers when ECB is active
never, i.e. special-dislay-handling depends on the values of the options special-display-function, special-display-buffer-names and special-display-regexps.

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 interactively (see ecb-advice-window-functions), we will select first an edit-window according to the value of ecb-mouse-click-destination. This is useful if you have any functions that use such functions and you don't want them to fail with an error complaining that the current buffer can not be split, or something similar.
Because this may not be desirable in all situations and for all adviced functions this can be enabled separately for every advicable function (see also ecb-advice-window-functions). If the symbol of an adviced function is contained in the value of this option, then a edit-window is first selected otherwise either an error is reported or some other special reaction (depends on ecb-advice-window-functions-signal-error); see the documentation of the adviced functions for this.
For other-window, other-window-for-scrolling and switch-to-buffer-other-window this makes no sense, therefore you can not enable this for them.
Per default this is enabled for switch-to-buffer and display-buffer.

layout-debug-mode User Option

Write debug-information about layout-operations in the Messages-buffer. Normally there should be no need to set this option to true but if there are problems to display buffers in the compile-window of ECB (e.g. buffers which should be displayed there aren't or the temporally enlarging-mechanism does not do what you think it should do etc...) then please do the following steps:

Set ecb-layout-debug-mode to not nil
Reproduce the wrong behavior exactly by repeating all the operations which lead to the problem.
Now send immediately a bug report with ecb-submit-problem-report.
Set ecb-layout-debug-mode back to nil if you do not want further debugging output in the *Messages* buffer

layout-name User Option

Select a window layout of ECB. Value is any arbitrary string. There are four different types of layouts: left, right, top and left-right, which means the location of the ECB-tree-windows in the ECB-frame. Currently there are 20 predefined layouts; names see below. 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 name <name> call `ecb-show-layout-help'. ecb-layout-function-9.
Currently available layouts:

Left layouts: left1 left2 left3 left4 left5 left6 left7 left8 left9 left10 left11 left12 left13 left14 left15
Right layouts: right1
Top layouts: top1 top2
Left-right layouts: leftright1 leftright2

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

layout-window-sizes User Option

Specifies the sizes of the ECB windows for each layout. The easiest way (and also the strongly recommended 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 command ecb-store-window-sizes. Next time the layout is redrawn the values stored in this option will be used.
If ecb-store-window-sizes is used then the windows sizes are stored per default as fractions of current frame-width and -height of the ecb-frame, so the stored values will "work" for other frame sizes too. But if you call ecb-store-window-sizes with a prefix-argument then the fixed values of current width and height are stored!
If this option is set "by hand" (i.e. not by ecb-store-window-sizes) then the following is important:

It is recommended to use fractions of frame-width and -height!.
The order of the sequence of the inserted window sizes must be the same as other-window (the not-adviced version!) would walk!

maximize-ecb-window-after-selection User Option

If not nil maximize current tree-window after selection. When selecting another not-tree-window after such an automatic maximizing all tree-windows of current layout are displayed again. But a tree-window is not maximized if either a node has been selected via primary- oder secondarc mouse-button or the popup-menu of that tree-buffer has been opened.

maximize-next-after-maximized-select User Option

Maximizes the next logical tree-window after a maximized node-selection. Selecting a node in a maximized tree-window is handled very smart by ECB:
If a tree-buffer-name is not contained in this option then selecting a node in this maximized tree-buffer automatically "minimizes" that tree-window (i.e. displays all windows of the current layout) so the user can perform the next logical step (e.g. the next logical step after selecting a directory in the directories-buffer is to select a source-file - therefore the sources-buffer of current layout has to be displayed - if the current layout contains one; the next logical step of selecting a source-file is probably to jump to a certain tag via the methods-buffer).
If a tree-buffer-name is contained in this option then selecting a node in this tree-buffer automatically maximizes the next logical tree-window (e.g. directories -> sources, sources/history -> methods). But if the current maximized tree-buffer is also contained in the option ecb-tree-do-not-leave-window-after-select (see also the tree-buffer-command ecb-toggle-do-not-leave-window-after-select which is bound to C-t in each tree-buffer) then ECB does *not* maximize the next logical tree-window but point stays in the currently maximized tree-buffer so for example the user can select more than one node (e.g. more than one source-file from the sources-buffer.
The tree-buffer-name can either be defined as plain string or with a symbol which contains the buffer-name as value. The latter one is recommended for the builtin ECB-tree-buffers because then simply the related option-symbol can be used (e.g. ecb-directories-buffer-name, ecb-sources-buffer-name or ecb-history-buffer-name).
In future versions this option will probably also allow to define the next logical tree-buffer for a tree-buffer - currently this is hard-coded as follows:

directories -next-logical-> sources
sources -next-logical-> methods
history -next-logical-> methods.

new-ecb-frame User Option

Create a new frame at activation time of ECB.

other-window-behavior User Option

The behavior of ECB concerning getting an "other window". This has an effect if either other-window or other-window-for-scrolling is adviced by ECB, see ecb-advice-window-functions. The following settings are possible:
all:
ECB will cycle through all windows of the ECB-frame or scroll simply the next window in the ECB-frame, means it behaves like the original other-window rsp. the original other-window-for-scrolling.
only-edit:
ECB will only cycle through the edit-windows of ECB or only scroll another edit-window. If the selected window is not an edit-window then it behaves like with value all.
edit-and-compile:
Like only-edit plus the compile window if any. If the selected window is neither an edit-window nor the compile-window then it behaves like with value all.
smart:
With this setting ECB tries to choose the other-window-destination or the "other window" to scroll in a smart and intuitive way: If point is in one of the edit-windows and if the edit-area is splitted then always the "next" edit-window is choosen (whereas the next edit-window of the last edit-window is the first edit-window)- if the edit-area is unsplitted then the compile-window is used if there is one. In the context of an other-window-call the ARG of other-window will be taken into account.
If one of the special ecb-windows is selected then always the "next" ecb-window is choosen (whereas the next ecb-window of the last ecb-window is the first ecb-window). In the context of an other-window-call the ARG of other-window will be taken into account. If there is only one ecb-window then ECB considers also the edit-windows
If the compile-window is selected then always the last edit-window which had the point will be used unless other-window has been called with a prefix-argument unequal 1.
If there is an active minibuffer:
Regardless of the allowed values above ECB handles the situation of an active minibuffer during a call to other-window or scroll-other-window like follows:
If the minibuffer-window is selected then ECB always chooses the window minibuffer-scroll-window points to (when this variable is set, otherwise the compile-window or the last selected edit-window is choosen) when the called command is called to choose the 1. next window (always true for scrolling another window or true when other-window called without prefix-arg or with prefix-arg equal 1). Otherwise the window ARG steps away is choosen (in case of other-window).
If there is an active minibuffer but the minibuffer-window is not selected then other-window and scroll-other-window behave like the original version.
In addition to the allowed values above the value of this option can also be a function:
A function:
This function gets seven arguments:

A canonical list of all currently visible windows of the ecb-frame
A canonical list of all currently visible edit-windows
A canonical list of all currently visible ecb-windows
The window-object of the compile-window if there is any.
The minibuffer-window of the ECB-frame if there is an active minibuffer.
The result of the function ecb-where-is-point - see the documentation of this function for details.
An integer which indicates how many steps away from the current selected window the "other-window" is. Is nil when this function is called in another context then for other-window.

The function has to return a window-object which is then used as "other window" for the command other-window or for scrolling another window (e.g. with scroll-other-window). Such a function has to handle properly all situation for itself. ecb-get-other-window-smart is an example for such a function.

redraw-layout-after-hook User Option

Hooks run direct before the ECB windows will be shown either by ecb-toggle-ecb-windows or ecb-show-ecb-windows. This means that at runtime of this hook the ECB-windows are already visible.

redraw-layout-before-hook User Option

Hooks run direct before the ECB-layout will be redrawn by either ecb-redraw-layout.

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.

select-edit-window-on-redraw User Option

Select the first edit window on ecb-redraw-layout.

show-ecb-windows-after-hook User Option

Hooks run direct before the ECB windows will be shown either by ecb-toggle-ecb-windows or ecb-show-ecb-windows. This means that at runtime of this hook the ECB-windows are already visible.
IMPORTANT: Showing the hidden ECB-windows is internally done by calling ecb-redraw-layout and therefore also the hooks ecb-redraw-layout-before-hook and ecb-redraw-layout-after-hook are evaluated. So there is the following sequence of hooks during the process of showing the hidden ECB-windows:

ecb-show-ecb-windows-before-hook
ecb-redraw-layout-before-hook
<redrawing the layout to show the hidden ECB-windows>
ecb-redraw-layout-after-hook
ecb-show-ecb-windows-after-hook
So be aware which code you add to which hook!

show-ecb-windows-before-hook User Option

Hooks run direct before the ECB windows will be shown either by ecb-toggle-ecb-windows or ecb-show-ecb-windows. This means that at runtime of this hook the ECB-windows are still hidden.
IMPORTANT: Showing the hidden ECB-windows is internally done by calling ecb-redraw-layout and therefore also the hooks ecb-redraw-layout-before-hook and ecb-redraw-layout-after-hook are evaluated. So there is the following sequence of hooks during the process of showing the hidden ECB-windows:

ecb-show-ecb-windows-before-hook
ecb-redraw-layout-before-hook
<redrawing the layout to show the hidden ECB-windows>
ecb-redraw-layout-after-hook
ecb-show-ecb-windows-after-hook
So be aware which code you add to which hook!

split-edit-window-after-start User Option

Sets if and how the edit window should be splitted after ECB-start. But be aware: This option determines only if and how the edit-window should be splitted at start-time of ECB. There are five different values allowed for this option:

nil: Do not split the edit-area of ECB after activation, i.e. there will be only one edit-window after starting ECB.
horizontal: Split the edit-area in 2 edit-windows side by side.
vertical: Split the edit-area in 2 edit-windows, one above the other.
before-activation: Split the edit-area as before the ECB-start, i.e. the edit-area will have after start a window-layout as the whole frame had before the start of ECB.
before-deactivation: Split the edit-area into a window-layout ECB had in its edit-area direct before the ECB-deactivation. This 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. But this can only be done if important layout-options have not been changed in the meanwhile. These are the options ecb-layout-name, ecb-compile-window-height, ecb-compile-window-width, ecb-windows-width and ecb-windows-height.

Default value is before-deactivation.
Some remarks to the value before-activation: If this value has been set then ECB needs three permanent adivces even when ECB is deactivated: split-window, delete-window and delete-other-windows. But these advices do not change any behavior of these functions but only storing in an internal ECB-variable the facts that a window has been splitted or deleted. In addition to this these advices are 100% error-save, means the functionality of the original functions will be performed in every(!) case even if within the advice an error occurs (but normally there can no errors occur in these advices because they are very simple). Conclusion: If you want really all ECB-advices being disabled after deactivating ECB then you have to set this option to other values then before-activation. But setting this variable to this value is really completely save.

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-name i.e. either one of the predefined layouts or one of the user-defined layouts.
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:

("left10" "left15"), toggles between methods and directories/history
("left10" "left13"), toggles between methods and directories
("left10" "left14"), toggles between methods and history
("left10" "left13" "left14"), toggles between methods, history and directories

See also option ecb-show-sources-in-directories-buffer.
This option makes only sense if the value is a list with more than 1 element!

windows-height User Option

The height of the ECB windows in lines for top-layouts. If the number is less than 1.0 the width is a fraction of the frame height.

windows-width User Option

The width of the ECB windows in columns for left- and right layouts. If the number is less than 1.0 the width is a fraction of the frame width.