Re: generics puzzle
On Sat, 22 Oct 2011, blmblm@myrealbox.com wrote:
In article <9gdsa6FpohU1@mid.individual.net>,
Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> wrote:
On 10/21/2011 06:27 PM, blmblm@myrealbox.com wrote:
If I could find a text-mode tool that did as much as Eclipse did I'd
probably use it. What I like about Eclipse is not its interface -- I
find it cluttered and not as keyboard-drivable as I like -- but its
features.
Hm... I use keyboard shortcuts in Eclipse excessively. What are you
missing?
Taking the question literally -- probably mostly a willingness to
appreciate this tool's strengths and not be too critical when it behaves
in some way that goes against my admittedly non-mainstream preferences.
Sort of a :-). Back to the point, though:
First I should probably say that my notion of "as keyboard-drivable as I
like" is "can do everything from the keyboard", which is a fairly high
bar. I've mentally bookmarked a lot of Eclipse's keyboard shortcuts,
and they make my experience of using this tool much more pleasant, but
there are still a few things .... Examples that come to mind:
If I do a "synchronize with repository" operation and let Eclipse switch
to the CVS perspective or view or whatever it is (I have trouble
remembering which of those is which), I haven't figured out how to
easily get back to the "normal" (Java) view, other than clicking a
little ">>" button near the upper right corner to display a list of
other whatever-they-are. I did find a keyboard shortcut (control-f8
IIRC) that *seemed* like it would do what I want, but I can't seem to
make it work. I could be mistaken.
I think I did come across a way to set and clear debugging breakpoints
from the keyboard, but I didn't mentally bookmark it, and trying to find
it again .... well, I haven't.
The key thing (har har) to know is that all Eclipse's key bindings are
configurable, and that there are a great many commands it has which do not
have bindings by default.
My pet hate is that there are no keystrokes for the 'extract constant' and
'extract parameter' refactorings. It's not long after i sit down with an
unfamiliar Eclipse that i find myself binding them to the otherwise unused
alt-shift-K and alt-shift-P combinations (fitting neatly into the
alt-shift family, which operates the other refactorings).
You can examine and configure the key bindings in the 'Keys' page in the
preferences. Which you can reach without the mouse by typing the keystroke
to open the preferences window (command-, on the Mac; can't remember what
it is on Linux), then typing 'keys' and hitting return. The textbox at the
top of the page lets you search for commands by name; i don't think
there's a way to search by keystroke. You can then see what's bound, and
add bindings for things which aren't. There's a little window which shows
you any conflicts with bindings you add. You can set the context in which
they keystroke is bound; i believe 'In Windows' means it's bound
everywhere.
From this, i can see that, on the Mac, command-F8 selects the next
perspective, and shift-command-F8 the previous one. There are a set of
'Show Perspective (foo)' commands for all the perspectives (do not be
seduced by the commands called simply 'Java' and 'Java Browsing' - they
are false idols). On my machine, command-F1 to command-F6 are not bound
(in Eclipse), so they could be used.
Toggle breakpoint is command-shift-B. Open breakpoint properties (but only
when in the breakpoints view) is option-return.
tom
--
The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead
channel