gnu-emacs-sources
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

ECB 2.30 is released!


From: Klaus Berndl
Subject: ECB 2.30 is released!
Date: 26 Nov 2004 17:46:29 +0100
User-agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3

                              ECB 2.30 is released!


This is major release with some important enhancements and nifty new features.
See below. 


What's new in the new release:
------------------------------

* Changes for ECB version 2.30

** Enhancements to the file-browser

*** Much better performance of the file-browser display because all
    time-consuming tasks (like the check if the displayed directories are
    empty of not) are now performed "stealthy" - means when Emacs is idle.
    Each stealthy task is interruptable by the user so Emacs/ECB will not be
    blocked by such tasks; next time Emacs is idle again the interrupted task
    automatically proceeds from the state it has been interrupted.
    There is a new macro `ecb-defstealthy' which can be used by a user to
    program own stealthy tasks.

    Currently ECB performs three stealthy tasks:

       Prescann directories for emptyness: Prescann directories and display
       them as empty or not-empty in the directories-buffer. See the
       documentation of the option `ecb-prescan-directories-for-emptyness' for
       a description.
     
       File is read only: Check if sourcefile-items of the directories- or
       sources-buffer are read-only or not. See documentation of the option
       `ecb-sources-perform-read-only-check'.
     
       Version-control-state: Checks the version-control-state of files in
       directories which are managed by a VC-backend. See the option
       `ecb-vc-enable-support'.

    There is also a new option `ecb-stealthy-tasks-delay'.

    There are three options which allow excluding certain directories from
    these stealthy tasks: `ecb-prescan-directories-exclude-regexps',
    `ecb-read-only-check-exclude-regexps' and last but not least
    `ecb-vc-directory-exclude-regexps'.

*** ECB is now capable of handling remote paths.
    "Remote" means file- or directory-paths in the sense of TRAMP, ANGE-FTP or
    EFS. Such paths can now being added to the option `ecb-source-path' with
    no limitation compared to "local" paths. Just work with remote-paths in
    the same manner as with local paths. See also the additional choices of
    the options `ecb-prescan-directories-for-emptyness',
    `ecb-sources-perform-read-only-check' and `ecb-vc-enable-support' (new).
    This new support is tested with the combinations GNU Emacs+TRAMP and
    XEmacs+EFS but it should (hopefully) also work with all other
    combinations. Thanks a lot to Tomas Orti for beta-testing!

*** ECB displays the Version-control-state of a file in the tree-buffers.
    There are four new options `ecb-vc-enable-support',
    `ecb-vc-supported-backends', `ecb-vc-directory-exclude-regexps' and
    `ecb-vc-state-mapping' which define if and how ECB should check the state
    of a sourcefile in a directory managed by a version-control system. By
    default ECB supports the same VC-backends as the builtin VC-support of
    Emacs: CVS, RCS and SCCS. But the option `ecb-vc-supported-backends'
    allows to add support for arbitrary VC-backends (e.g. Clearcase). New
    image-icons are also included for a cute display of the VC-state in the
    directories, sources and history-buffer. Thanks to Markus Gritsch
    <address@hidden> for contributing the icons.

    It's recommended to read the section "Version-control support" in the
    chapter "Tips and Trick" of the ECB-info-manual!

*** New hook which runs directly after the selected directory has changed.
    See documentation of `ecb-after-directory-change-hook'.
    
** The popup-menu of the methods-browser allows precisely expanding of the
   current node. This means you can precisely expand a certain node to an
   exact indentation level relative to the node. This means all subnodes <=
   this level will be expanded (full recursive expanding is therefore of
   course also possible) and all subnodes indented deeper than this level will
   be collapsed - this is very different from using the expand/collapse symbol
   of a node. For forther details and examples the the manual and the section
   "Expanding" and here the subsection "Explicit expanding of the current node
   to a certain level".

** Automatically upgraded ecb-option-settings are now not saved by default.
   This means that ECB has now the new policy "Never touching the
   customization-files of a user without asking". The result is a completely
   redesigned upgraded-options-buffer: Now at the bottom of this buffer
   (displayed by `ecb-display-upgraded-options') two clickable buttons [Save]
   and [Cancel] are displayed which give the user the choice between saving
   the upgraded options for future Emacs-sessions ot just to cancel this
   buffer. In the latter case ECB has also upgraded the not compatible or
   renamed options (as listed in the displayed upgraded-options-buffer) but
   they will be not saved, i.e. no customization-file is touched and the
   changed and upgraded values will be lost after quiting Emacs.

** With XEmacs ECB temporary sets `progress-feedback-use-echo-area' to t
   This is necessary because otherwise the progress-display with native
   widgets modifies the window-sizes of ECB and does not exactly restore the
   window-sizes as before that progress-display. Deactivating ECB
   automatically restores the old value of this option.
   
** Fixed bugs

*** Fixed resizing of the ecb-windows after opening a file
    Sometimes (X)Emacs (the behavior has only been reported for XEmacs)
    resizes the ecb-windows after opening a file by clicking onto a sourcefile
    or calling `find-file' (or similar functions). This is not a bug of ECB
    but nevertheless it is annoying for the ECB-users. Therefore ECB has now a
    workaround which prevents the ecb-windows from resizing. The work around
    is done via two simple advices of `find-file' and `find-file-other-window'.

*** Fixed a bug in the upgrading feature (command `ecb-download-ecb') which has
    occured when the user has set a different LOKALE (e.g. "address@hidden").

*** Fixed a bug in restoring sizes of the ecb-windows.
    Now a check will be performed if there are ecb-windows visible. If not
    nothing will be done (versions < 2.30 have failed in such a case).
    This bug has prevented ediff from working together with ECB when a
    compile-window was visible and the user has stored window-sizes for the
    current layout.



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".  While 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.

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)                  |
|                                                                |
------------------------------------------------------------------

For more details go to http://ecb.sourceforge.net/


Enjoy,
Klaus

--

Klaus Berndl                     mailto: address@hidden
sd&m AG                          http://www.sdm.de
software design & management
Carl-Wery-Str. 42, 81739 Muenchen, Germany
Tel +49 89 63812-392, Fax -220


reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]