From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Tom Tromey Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Neat features in Eclipse editor Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:36:19 -0600 Message-ID: References: <873aqia0eh.fsf@stupidchicken.com> Reply-To: Tom Tromey NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1206225093 21544 80.91.229.12 (22 Mar 2008 22:31:33 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:31:33 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Paul Michael Reilly , rms@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Chong Yidong Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Mar 22 23:32:03 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1JdCFu-0008R4-NT for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 22 Mar 2008 23:32:03 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1JdCFJ-0002va-Sj for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:31:25 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1JdCFF-0002vL-LU for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:31:21 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1JdCFE-0002v8-Db for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:31:20 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1JdCFE-0002v5-8n for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:31:20 -0400 Original-Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([66.187.233.31]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1JdCFA-0002vK-HO; Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:31:16 -0400 Original-Received: from int-mx1.corp.redhat.com (int-mx1.corp.redhat.com [172.16.52.254]) by mx1.redhat.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id m2MMVA4j002221; Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:31:10 -0400 Original-Received: from pobox.corp.redhat.com (pobox.corp.redhat.com [10.11.255.20]) by int-mx1.corp.redhat.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id m2MMVAYm019017; Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:31:10 -0400 Original-Received: from opsy.redhat.com (vpn-248-66.boston.redhat.com [10.13.248.66]) by pobox.corp.redhat.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id m2MMV988004304; Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:31:10 -0400 Original-Received: by opsy.redhat.com (Postfix, from userid 500) id 52D1750812A; Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:36:22 -0600 (MDT) X-Attribution: Tom In-Reply-To: <873aqia0eh.fsf@stupidchicken.com> (Chong Yidong's message of "Sat\, 22 Mar 2008 17\:56\:06 -0400") User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.1 (gnu/linux) X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.58 on 172.16.52.254 X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:93213 Archived-At: >>>>> "Chong" == Chong Yidong writes: >> * "Perspectives" are named persistent window configurations. We have >> had the window configuration mechanism in GNU Emacs since the >> beginning but we have never developed a good user interface to take >> advantage of them. Eclipse's user interface seems to be good. Chong> What kind of user interface does Eclipse provide for this? The user interface for a perspective is that there is a list of perspectives on a toolbar-ish thing (the overflow turns into a dropdown menu). Clicking switches perspectives. As I recall for some operations, Eclipse will automatically switch perspectives for you. I think the first time it will ask if you want this behavior in the future; e.g. if you run the debugger, it will switch to the debug perspective and ask if you want to always do that when debugging. In a perspective you can rearrange the various sub-windows; Eclipse just remembers where you put everything, plus what is open or closed. In case it matters, in Eclipse a perspective is more than just an Emacs window configuration; a perspective can change the content of various views. Perspectives tend to be kind of heavyweight, as well. E.g., in the Java perspective, the file browser thingy will by default show a java package/class-based view rather than a strictly file-based view. At least, this is my recollection. I haven't used Eclipse this past year, but I did use it daily for a couple years before that. Most distros package Eclipse these days. It isn't hard to give it a whirl :-) Tom