ECB - the Emacs Code Browser

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This is the user manual for ECB version 2.23.

ECB stands for "Emacs Code Browser". While (X)Emacs already has good editing support for many modes, its browsing support is somewhat lacking. That's where ECB comes in: it displays a number of informational windows that allow for easy source code navigation and overview.

The informational windows can contain:

A directory tree,
a list of source files in the current directory,
a list of functions/classes/methods/... in the current file, (ECB uses the Semantic Bovinator, or Imenu, or etags, for getting this list so all languages supported by any of these tools are automatically supported by ECB too)
a history of recently visited files,
the Speedbar and
output from compilation (the "*compilation*" window) and other modes like help, grep etc. or whatever a user defines to be displayed in this window.

As an added bonus, ECB makes sure to keep these informational windows visible, even when you use C-x 1 and similar commands.

It goes without saying that you can configure the layout, ie which informational windows should be displayed where. ECB comes with a number of ready-made window layouts to choose from.

Please 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://ecb.sourceforge.net

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

Install and first steps: Installing ECB and first steps
Overview: Introduce basic concepts
Activation and Deactivation: How to start and end ECB
Usage of ECB: How to use ECB
Customizing: How to customize ECB
Submitting problem report: What to do when problems occur
Upgrading: Upgrading and downloading packages
Tips and tricks: Useful hints and tips
Elisp programming: Entry points for Elisp programmers
Conflicts and bugs: Known Conflicts with other packages and bugs
FAQ: Frequently asked questions
Command Index: Index for interactive commands
Option Index: Index for user options
Concept Index: Index for concepts and terms
--- The Detailed Node Listing ---
Installation and first steps of ECB
Installation: Installation of ECB
Setting up Emacs: How to set up Emacs for file parsing with ECB
First steps: First steps after activating ECB first time
Installation of ECB
XEmacs Installation: Installation of ECB for XEmacs users
GNU Emacs Installation: Installation of ECB for GNU Emacs users
How to set up Emacs for file parsing with ECB
General hints: General hints for a correct setup
Setting up semantic: How to setup semantic correctly
Non-semantic files: Setup for file types not supported by semantic
Overview
ECB Directories-buffer: Contents of the ECB Directories-buffer
ECB Sources-buffer: Contents of the ECB Sources/history-buffer
ECB Methods-buffer: Contents of the ECB Methods-buffer
Activation and Deactivation
Standard activation: How to manually (de)activate ECB
Automatic activation: Automatically (de)activating ECB
Usage of ECB
Using the mouse: Working with the mouse
Using the keyboard: Working with the keyboard
The edit-area: How to use the edit-area
Temp- and compile-buffers: Displaying temp- and compilation-buffers
The other window: How the ``other window'' is determined
The Methods buffer: Using and customizing the Methods-buffer
Filtering the tree-buffers: Applying filters to the ECB-tree-buffers
The ECB-layout: Changing, customizing, redrawing, creating
Hiding the ECB windows: Hiding/Showing the ECB-windows
Maximizing the ECB windows: Maximizing the ECB-windows
Back/forward navigation: Back- and forward navigation like a browser
ECB-window synchronizing: Auto./manual synchronizing the ECB-windows
Interactive ECB commands: All interactive user-commands of ECB
Working with the keyboard in the ECB-windows
Navigation/Selection: Keyboard navigation/selection in a tree-buffer
Incremental search: Find nodes as fast as possible
Personal keybindings: Adding personal keybindings to a tree-buffer
Using popup-menus: Using the popup-menus from keyboard.
Using and customizing the ECB-Methods buffer
Visiting tags: Possible actions after visiting a tag
Expanding: Explicit and automatic expanding
Customizing the display: How to customize the Methods-buffer display
Rebuilding the Methods: When to rebuild the Methods-buffer
Applying filters to the special ECB-tree-buffers
Filtering Sources: Applying filters to Sources- and History-buffer
Filtering Methods: Applying filters to the Methods-buffer
Changing, customizing, redrawing and creating layouts
Changing the ECB-layout: How to change and customize the layout
Redrawing the ECB-layout: How and when redrawing the layout
Changing window sizes: Changing sizes of the ECB-windows
Fixing window sizes: Fixing sizes of the ECB-windows
Creating a new ECB-layout: Interactively creating new layouts
Customizing ECB
General aspects: General aspects for customizing ECB
Most important options: Which option you must know
Customizable options: All customizable options of ECB
General aspects for customizing ECB
setq or customize: Should i use setq or customize?
Site-wide customizing: Site-wide customizing of ECB
All customizable options of ECB
ecb-general: General customizing ECB
ecb-tree-buffer: Customizing the general tree layout
ecb-directories: Customizing the ECB-directories-tree
ecb-sources: Customizing the ECB-sources-tree
ecb-methods: Customizing the ECB-methods-tree
ecb-history: Customizing the ECB-history-tree
ecb-layout: Customizing the ECB-layout
ecb-compilation: Customizing the compile-window
ecb-create-layout: Customizing options for creating layouts
ecb-face-options: Customizing options for faces
ecb-faces: Customizing the faces
ecb-download: Customizing how to download ECB
ecb-help: Customizing the online help of ECB
ecb-eshell: Customizing the eshell-integration
ecb-speedbar: Customizing the speedbar-integration
ecb-non-semantic: Customizing parsing non-semantic sources
ecb-winman: Customizing window-manager support
ecb-mode-line: Customizing the tree-buffer-modelines
Upgrading and downloading packages
Downloading new versions: How to download newer versions of packages
Auto. option-upgrading: ECB can auto. upgrade your options
Automatic upgrading of options
User interface: Options and commands you should know
Background information: Maybe some interesting informations
Tips and tricks
Changing faces: Changing faces in the ECB tree-buffers
Small screens: Working with small screens
Big screens: Working with big screens
Simulating speedbar: Simulating speedbar without an extra frame
Integrating speedbar: Integrating speedbar in the ECB-frame
Optimize scrolling: Optimize scrolling in the edit-window
Large directories: Working with large directories
Using eshell: Optimal using of eshell in ECB
Grepping directories: Grepping directories with ECB
Working with JDEE: Working best with ECB and JDEE
Compile-window on demand: Displaying the compile-window on demand
Non-semantic sources: Parsing and displaying non-semantic sources
Hide-show: Using hide-show from the methods-buffer-menu
Window-managers and ECB: Support of several Emacs-window-managers
Tree-buffer styles: Displaying the trees with different styles
Using semanticdb: Using semanticdb for going to external nodes
Displaying the trees of the ECB-windows with different styles
Style basics: Basic knowledge about the styles
Ascii-based styles: How to customize the ascii-styles
Tree-buffers with images: Which images are used for the tree
Images for Methods-buffer: Images for the tags in the Methods-buffer
Entry points for Elisp programmers
List of variables: Which variables an Elisp-program can use
List of hooks: All available hooks
tree-buffer: Some words to the tree-buffer-library
Adviced functions: How to deal with the adviced functions
The layout-engine: Programming new layouts and special windows
How to program new layouts and new special windows
Programming a new layout: How to program a new layout
Programming special windows: Aspects of programming special windows
Possible layout-outlines: The wide range of possible layouts
The layout-engine API: The complete layout-engine API
Conflicts and bugs of ECB
Conflicts: Conflicts with other packages
Bugs: Known bugs