11. Frequently asked questions

This is the Emacs Code Browser FAQ.

Question QUESTION What is the first step i should do if i have problems with ECB? What should i do, if a have a problem which can not be solved even after reading the online-help? What should i do, if another package seems not to work correct with ECB? Can ECB parse and display source-contents not supported by semantic? Why are the lines in the ECB-, temp- and compilation-buffers not wrapped but truncated? Why doesn't ECB work correct with VC? Does ECB support C++ as well as Java? Does ECB support Perl? Does ECB support language XYZ? How to add new languages to ECB? Why does ECB not recognize my source-files for C++? Why doesn't ECB display the node name in the echo area if mouse moves over it? What is the reason for poor scrolling performance with GNU Emacs 20.X in the edit-windows and what can i do? Is it possible to make the history of ECB persistent? Is there an "Intellisense"-mechanism like with other IDEs? Can i use ECB in combination with Gnus within one frame? Can i speed up displaying the contents of big-size directories? Is it possible to create/use other layouts than the built-in ones? Can i use speedbar as directory-browser within ECB? Can i exclude subdirectories from the recursive grep in the directories buffer? How can i prevent contaminating each directory with a file `semantic-cache'? Why ECB displays large portions of current source-file with dark background? Why ECB underlines some parts of current source-file? Can i add my own commands to the popup-menus of tree-buffers? Can ECB display the compile-window "on demand"? Which buffers are treated as compilation-buffers by ECB? How can i change the modeline of an ECB-tree-buffer? Can the tree-buffers being selected faster than with the standard-keybindings of ECB? Can ECB display the window-number in the modeline of the special windows? How can i change the keybindings of ECB? What can i do if hiding/showing from the methods-buffer does not work? Can i maximize one of the ECB-windows for better overlook? Can i hide the ECB-windows for getting more editing-space? Can i define the actions ECB performs after visiting a tag? Buffers are not displayed correctly in the compile-window? Can ECB work together with window-managers like escreen.el? Can i remove these "ugly" vertical lines from a tree-buffer? ECB does not display images in the tree-buffers - what can i do? Do special-display-function et. al. work with ECB. Can i activate the popup-menu of a tree-buffer from keyboard? Can i display the popup-menu of a tree-buffer with tmm? Does ECB disable all advices after deactivation? Can ECB preserve the full state of ECB between deactivation and next activation? Can i change the behavior how ECB chooses another window for selecting it or scrolling it. Can i increase the allowed depth of nested submenus. Can i apply some filters to the Tree-buffers. With XEmacs i get sometimes an error "Wrong number of arguments: widen (1)". What can i do? Can i use desktop.el in combination with ECB? Opening directories takes a long time - what can i do? ECB seems to be blocked sometimes - what is the reason? Can i exclude certain directories from being checked for emptyness? Can i exclude certain directories from checking the VC-state of the contained sources? Can i exclude certain directories from checking the read-only-state of the contained sources? ECB ignores the remote-paths i have added to ecb-source-path. ECB seems to be blocked a long time. ECB seems to be blocked during the VC-state update in the tree-windows. I have encountered some problems with the display of the VC-state in the tree-buffers.

		Answer ANSWER

		Read carefully the related sections of the online-help of ECB.

		Send a problem-report to the ECB-mailing-list with the command `ecb-submit-problem-report`. See 6. Submitting a problem report.

		Take a look into 10.1 Conflicts with other packages. If your package is not listed there then submit a problem-report.

		Yes, in all version >= 1.94. ECB can now parse and display all source-contents supported by semantic, imenu or etags - same as speedbar. See 8.14 Parsing and displaying non-semantic sources.

		Check the variable `truncate-partial-width-windows` and set it to nil.

		The variable `vc-delete-logbuf-window` must be set to nil during active ECB. This can be done with the hooks of ECB.

		This depends strongly on the used semantic-version, but all semantic-versions >= semantic-1.4.3 support C++ really well.

		If perl can be parsed either by imenu, etags or semantic then ECB supports perl. Of course ECB would support perl best if perl is supported by semantic.

		See question "Does ECB support Perl?" and replace "Perl" with "XYZ" in the answer.

		Add the language XYZ to semantic (perform all necessary steps described in the semantic-manual) and ECB will automatically support language XYZ! There is nothing to do in ECB itself! Same when you write an imenu- or etags-support for language XYZ.

		Your C++-files have probably an extension which is not mapped to c++-mode in `auto-mode-alist` and/or your own Emacs-setup has "destroyed" the correct value of the hook-variable `c++-mode-hook`. See 1.2 How to set up Emacs for file parsing with ECB.

		There can be several reasons: First the value of the option `ecb-show-node-name-in-minibuffer` must be either `always` or `if-too-long`. If this is OK, then maybe you have turned on follow-mouse AFTER activating ECB; follow-mouse must be turned on BEFORE ECB is activated, e.g. in the `ecb-activate-hook`! But with Emacs 21.X and XEmacs there are no problems with this feature, just activate it.

		Set `scroll-conservatively` to 0 and `scroll-step` to a value > 1. For the exact reason look at 8.6 Optimize scrolling in the edit-window.

		You can use the library "desktop.el" which works very well with ECB. Then all files of your recent Emacs-session will be opened automatically after next Emacs-start and will be added automatically to the ECB-history after ECB-start.

		For Java the JDEE(47) has this feature and for all other languages semantic offer something similar, see http://cedet.sourceforge.net/intellisense.shtml

		You can, but for ECB-versions < 1.96 it is not recommended because each of them has it's own window-management and probably there will be conflicts, so use different frames for ECB and Gnus! But beginning with ECB 1.96 you can use either escreen.el or winring.el as "window-manager" which allows you in consequence to use ECB and applications like Gnus in one frame! See section 8.16 Support of several Emacs-window-managers.

		Yes, see the option `ecb-cache-directory-contents`. Read the section 8.7 Working with large directories.

		Yes. 4.8.5 Interactively creating new layouts and 9.5 How to program new layouts and new special windows are the relevant sections. The former one describes how to create interactively new layouts where the latter one is for Elisp-programmers.

		Yes, see 8.5 Integrating speedbar in the ECB-frame.

		Yes, see 8.11 Grepping directories with ECB.

		Set `semanticdb-default-save-directory` to a directory.

		This comes from semantic; see 1.2 How to set up Emacs for file parsing with ECB.

		This comes from semantic; see 1.2 How to set up Emacs for file parsing with ECB.

		Yes, see 4.1 Working with the mouse in the ECB-windows.

		Yes, see 8. Tips and tricks.

		See the docstring of the function `ecb-compilation-buffer-p`.

		You can change it with the options `ecb-mode-line-prefixes`, `ecb-mode-line-data` and `ecb-mode-line-display-window-number`.

		Yes, see option `ecb-mode-line-display-window-number`.

		Yes, see option `ecb-mode-line-display-window-number`.

		You can do this with option `ecb-key-map` (see section 5.3.1 Group ecb-general).

		Either the current `major-modes` is not supported by hideshow or you have to add an entry to `hs-special-modes-alist` (see section 8.15 Using hide-show from the methods-buffer-menu).

		Yes, see 4.10 Maximizing the ECB windows.

		Yes, see 4.9 Hiding/Showing the ECB windows.

		Yes, see 4.6.1 Possible actions after visiting a tag.

		See Problems with the compile window.

		Yes, see 8.16 Support of several Emacs-window-managers.

		Yes, see option `ecb-tree-buffer-style`.

		Customize `ecb-tree-buffer-style` and restart ECB. But note: GNU Emacs <= 21.3.X for Windows does not support image-display so ECB uses always ascii-guide-lines even when here the image-style is set in `ecb-tree-buffer-style`.

		Yes, see Using special-display with ECB.

		Yes, see 4.2.4 Using the popup-menu of a tree-buffer from keyboard..

		Yes, see 4.2.4 Using the popup-menu of a tree-buffer from keyboard..

		"Nes"(48), see remarks in the documentation of the option `ecb-split-edit-window-after-start`.

		Yes, see the option `ecb-split-edit-window-after-start`.

		Yes, see 4.5 How the "other window" is determined by ECB.

		Yes, see the docstring of the option `ecb-directories-menu-user-extension`.

		Yes, see 4.7 Applying filters to the special ECB-tree-buffers

		Disable the func-menu support in your XEmacs-setup. See 10.1 Conflicts with other packages.

		Yes, see 10.1 Conflicts with other packages.

		Read 8.7 Working with large directories.

		ECB performs some stealthy tasks when idle - this can cause sometimes a blocked Emacs but this tasks will be immetiatelly interrupted by any user-event so there should be normally no problems. But especially for mounted net-drives some of the stealthy tasks can take time up to some seconds for each file - and during one file-operation it can not be interrupted. See also `ecb-stealthy-tasks-delay`.

		Yes, see option `ecb-prescan-directories-exclude-regexps`.

		Yes, see option `ecb-vc-directory-exclude-regexps`.

		Yes, see option `ecb-read-only-check-exclude-regexps`.

		Maybe you have to check the option `ecb-ping-options`. Ensure that this option contains a value suitable for your ping-program (see `ecb-ping-program`). See also 8.8 Working with remote directories.

		Maybe you use cygwin-XEmacs. Then either the empty-dir-check (see option `ecb-prescan-directories-for-emptyness`) or the VC-support (see `ecb-vc-enable-support`) can block ECB. For the latter one see 8.9.6 Currently know problems with the VC-support.

		Maybe the root repository for the current directory is a remote-repository. This can result in a long lasting check-time per file. See also 8.9 Supporting Version control systems for hints what you can do.

		See also 8.9 Supporting Version control systems for hints what you can do.

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