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Integrating speedbar in the ECB-frame

It is very easy to integrate speedbar into ECB. There are two different ways to do this:

1. You can either use speedbar in the directories-, sources- or methods-window of ECB instead of the built-in directory-, sources- or methods-browser of ECB. This can be done via the option ecb-use-speedbar-instead-native-tree-buffer.
2. Or you can integrate an extra speedbar-window into a layout independent of the existence of a directory-, sources- or methods-window. For this you can either use the built-in layout "left-dir-plus-speedbar" or you have to create your own layout interactively with the command ecb-create-new-layout. This way is not described in more details because there is nothing more to describe - just create your layout.

In general integrating speedbar into the ECB-frame makes sense for people...

• ...who like the speedbar way of handling directories and source-files but also like the ECB-way of displaying the buffer-contents (like methods and variables in a source-file). This people should use the option ecb-use-speedbar-instead-native-tree-buffer and set it to dir.
• ...who like the speedbar way of browsing things like directories, files, file-contents etc. but who dislike the extra speedbar-frame.

Note: It is not necessary to integrate speedbar if you only want parsing sources not supported by semantic. From version 1.94 on ECB supports native parsing and displaying of such sources (see Non-semantic sources)!

Regardless the group you belong, with the speedbar-integration feature of ECB you can combine both worlds, the speedbar- and the ECB-world:

1. Choose a layout which either contains a directories- or a sources-window but not both of them¹.

   Because speedbar has also display-modes for buffers and info-nodes and some other useful things (which can be changed by the speedbar-command speedbar-change-initial-expansion-list we recommend layouts like "left15" or "leftright3" for using with speedbar.

2. Set the option ecb-use-speedbar-instead-native-tree-buffer to not nil. After this the chosen window of ECB will contain a full featured speedbar (the only difference to standard speedbar is not residing in an extra frame).

Note: If you belong to the first group of people (s.a.) a similar effect and usability is available by setting ecb-use-speedbar-instead-native-tree-buffer to nil and setting ecb-show-sources-in-directories-buffer to not nil, because this combination displays also directories and sources in one window.

So with the option ecb-use-speedbar-instead-native-tree-buffer you have the choice which way of displaying and handling "things" (directories, sources, methods...) you want (the speedbar- or the ECB-way).

During speedbar is running within ECB (i.e. ecb-use-speedbar-instead-native-tree-buffer is not nil) the speedbar-command speedbar is disabled and the speedbar-command speedbar-get-focus switches between the speedbar-window and the edit-window².

IMPORTANT: ECB can only integrate speedbar-versions >= 0.14beta1! If you use lower versions of speedbar ecb-use-speedbar-for-directories has no effect.

Footnotes

1. Only one of them is needed if you use speedbar because speedbar displays directories and sources in one window. But if you like wasting space then you can also use a layout with both windows...

2. The standard behavior is switching between the speedbar-frame and the attached frame, but this make obviously no sense during running speedbar with ECB.