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) | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------ ; Installation To use the Emacs code browser add the ECB files to your load path and add the following line to your .emacs file: If you want autoloading ECB after first start: (require 'ecb-autoloads) or if you want loading the complete ECB: (require 'ecb) Optional: You can byte-compile ECB with `ecb-byte-compile' after the ECB-package is loaded ; Requirements - Semantic, author-version between >= 1.4 (http://cedet.sourceforge.net/semantic.shtml). - Eieio, author-version >= 0.17 (http://cedet.sourceforge.net/eieio.shtml). - speedbar, author version >= 0.14beta1 (http://cedet.sourceforge.net/speedbar.shtml) - Optional: If Java code is edited the ECB works best when the JDEE package (http://sunsite.auc.dk/jde) is installed. ; Activation ECB is either activated and started by calling M-x ecb-activate or via the menu "Tools --> Start Code Browser (ECB)" ECB can also be (de)activated/toggled by M-x ecb-minor-mode. After activating ECB you should call `ecb-show-help' to get a detailed description of what ECB offers to you and how to use ECB. ; Availability The latest version of the ECB is available at http://ecb.sourceforge.net ; History For the ChangeLog of this file see the CVS-repository. For a complete history of the ECB-package see the file NEWS.