Node:Conflicts, Next:Bugs, Previous:Conflicts and bugs, Up:Conflicts and bugs
This chapter contains a list of already known conflict between ECB and other packages and how to solve them - in most cases ECB already contains a suitable workaround.
But in front of this "know-conflicts-and-solutions-list" a general recipe is given what you can do when you have detected a conflict between ECB and a package not listed in the know-conflicts-section.
As of version 2.20 the layout-engine of ECB is so flexible that normally there should be no conflicts with other packages unless these packages have their own complete window-layout-management (e.g. Gnus, BBDB, Xrefactory). But these packages can and should be handled very well with the window-manager-support of ECB (see Window-managers and ECB).
So if you detect an unknown (i.e. not listed in the conflicts-list in the next subsection) conflict with a small package and some of its commands and you have installed an ECB-version < 2.20 the first task you have to do is to upgrade to a version >= 2.20!
If this doesn't solve the problem a very probable reason for the
conflict is that the command fails if called from another window than
an edit-window of the ecb-frame. So please check if the problem
disappears if you call the failing command from an edit-window of ECB.
If this is true then you you can add the following code to your
.emacs (and of course replace the XXX with the failing command):
(defadvice XXX (before ecb activate)
"Ensures `XXX' works well when called from another window
as an edit-window. Does nothing if called in another frame
as the `ecb-frame'."
(when (equal (selected-frame) ecb-frame)
(unless (ecb-point-in-edit-window)
(ecb-select-edit-window))))
This before-advice runs before the command XXX and ensures that the XXX is called from within an edit-window if the current selected window is not an edit-window. It does nothing if called for another frame as the ecb-frame.
If such an advice solves the problem then please send a not with the solution to the ECB-mailing-list or direct to the ECB-maintainer so the solution can be integrated in the next ECB-release
If calling from an edit-window fails too then please file a complete bug-report to the ECB-mailing-list (see Submitting problem report). This report should contain a detailed description which command of which package fails under which circumstances!
Here is a list of known conflicts of ECB with other packages and helpful solutions/hints/workarounds:
With GNU Emacs 20.X ECB must deactivate mouse-avoidance-mode if the
option ecb-show-node-info-in-minibuffer activates for at least one
ECB tree-buffer 'if-too-long or 'always. This is done automatically
but only as long ECB is activated.
The package bs.el offers a nifty buffer-selection buffer. The main
command of this package is bs-show. With ECB < 2.20 this
command does not really working well within activated ECB. But as of
version 2.20 of ECB there should be no problems using this package.
If you add "*buffer-selection*" as buffer-name to the option
ecb-compilation-buffer-names then ECB will always display the
buffer-selection buffer of bs in the compile-window (if there is one).
Otherwise bs will use the edit-area to do its job.
As of ECB 2.21 there should be no conflicts between BBDB and ECB, so BBDB can be used even when the ECB-windows are visible.
But if you encounter problems then it is recommened to use one of the window-managers escreen.el or winring.el (see Window-managers and ECB). With such a window-manager ECB and BBDB should work together very well under all circumstances!
The following is only for ECB-versions < 2.20. From beginning with version 2.20 there are no conflicts with the package calculator.el!
If the edit-window is already splitted then calling calculator uses
the whole "other" edit-window for the calculator. With an unsplitted
edit-window the calculator window has itīs normal size of about 2
lines. Therefore itīs recommended to set calculator-electric-mode
during ECB activation to not nil so calculator uses always the
echo-area instead of creating a new small window!
With activated ECB calendar does not shrink itīs window to the small
size but splits the window equally. But if you add this to your
.emacs it works:
(add-hook 'initial-calendar-window-hook
(function (lambda ()
(when (and ecb-minor-mode
(ecb-point-in-edit-window))
;; if no horizontal split then nothing
;; special to do
(or (= (frame-width) (window-width))
(shrink-window (- (window-height) 9))))
)))
There can be a conflict between ECB and cygwin-mount.el if the following conditions are true:
cygwin-mount-build-mount-table-asynch to not
nil
ecb-auto-activate or calling ecb-activate in
window-setup-hook)
cygwin-mount-activate.
Under these circumstances Emacs 21.X sometimes eats up the whole CPU (at least with Windows XP) and the cygwin-mount-table is never build.
But there is an easy work-around: Call cygwin-mount-activate
first *AFTER* ECB is activated. This can be done with the hook
ecb-activate-hook:
(add-hook 'ecb-activate-hook
(function (lambda ()
(require 'cygwin-mount)
(setq cygwin-mount-build-mount-table-asynch t)
(cygwin-mount-activate))))
It is strongly recommended to run edebug only when the ECB-windows are hidden. With visible ECB-windows there will probably serious conflicts between the ECB-layout and the edebug-window-manager.
In most cases ECB works very well with ediff (see option
ecb-run-ediff-in-ecb-frame). But currently suspending ediff
with ediff-suspend and restoring the ediff-session (e.g. with
command eregistry) does confuse the window-management of ECB.
If you often use ediff in a scenario where you suspend ediff and
reactivate it later then it is recommended to exit ECB first
(ecb-deactivate or ecb-minor-mode)!
Beginning with version 1.96 ECB supports the window-manager escreen.el. See Window-managers and ECB.
The following is only relevant for Emacs 20.X!
ECB works very well with follow-mouse if follow-mouse is turned on
BEFORE ECB is activated (e.g. within the
ecb-activate-hook). But if you activate follow-mouse first
after ECB is already activated, then the follow-mouse stuff prevents
the complete node-name to be displayed in the echo-area if mouse moves
over it. Because ECB has a much more intelligent mouse tracking
mechanism than follow-mouse the follow-mouse stuff profit from ECB and
works even better and saver as without activated ECB!
As of ECB 2.21 there should be no conflicts between Gnus and ECB, so Gnus can be used even when the ECB-windows are visible.
But if you encounter problems then it is recommened to use one of the window-managers escreen.el or winring.el (see Window-managers and ECB). With such a window-manager ECB and Gnus should work together very well under all circumstances!
JDEE has a lot of "dialogs" where the user can select among several
choices. An example is importing classes via the command
jde-import-find-and-import. These dialogs are strongly designed
to work in an environment where a new temporary window is created, the
contents of the dialog are displayed in the new window, the user
select his choice and hits [OK]. After that the new window is deleted
and the selection is performed (for example the chosen import
statement are inserted in the source-buffer.
Caution: ECB can work very well with this dialogs but only if
the buffer-name of these dialog-buffers (normally "Dialog") is not
contained in the option ecb-compilation-buffer-names. So do not
add the string "Dialog" to this option!
Please Note: Regardless if a durable compile-window is used
(i.e. ecb-compile-window-height is not nil) or not, these
JDEE-dialogs will always being displayed by splitting the edit-window
of ECB and not within the compile-window.
ECB advices scroll-all-mode so it is working correct during
running ECB. This means if point stays in an edit-window and the
edit-window is splitted then all edit-windows are scrolled by
scroll-all-mode and no other window! If point stays in any
other window just this selected window is scrolled. This is the only
senseful behavior of scroll-all-mode with ECB.
In general this library does not work perfectly with ECB. Beginning
with version 1.95.2 ECB autom. ensures that every code which uses
tmm-prompt (e.g. tmm-menubar) works.
The variable vc-delete-logbuf-window must be set to nil during
active ECB. This can be done with the hooks mentioned in Elisp programming.
As of ECB 2.21 there should be no conflicts between VM and ECB, so VM can be used even when the ECB-windows are visible.
But if you encounter problems then it is recommened to use one of the window-managers escreen.el or winring.el (see Window-managers and ECB). With such a window-manager ECB and VM should work together very well under all circumstances!
winner-mode is autom. disabled as long as ECB is running. ECB
has its own window-management which is completely incompatible with
winner-mode! But winner-mode makes also not really sense
with ECB.
Beginning with version 1.96 ECB supports the window-manager winring.el. See Window-managers and ECB.
Xrefactory (also known as Xref, X-ref and Xref-Speller), the refactoring browser for (X)Emacs1, can be used during running ECB regardless if the ECB-windows are visible or not. There should be no conflicts as of ECB versions >= 2.21.
If there are conflicts with the Xref-browser then the most recommended way is to use one of the window-manager escreen.el or winring.el (and then use different escreens or window-configurations for ECB and Xrefactory-browsing - Window-managers and ECB).
Xrefactory is available at http://www.xref-tech.com