Emacs ECB Alternative

Question

I've been using Emacs as a PHP IDE for quite some time now (with emacs-starter-kit, ECB, & Geben). With each new release for emacs-starter-kit or Emacs 24, ECB introduces new errors & window issues. It doesn't seem well-maintained anymore (last release was 2009).

Wondering if there's a project-manager / IDE emacs plugin that's today's defacto? Something that does file-browsing (like sr-speedbar), method list, possibly even auto ctags?

Howells

Answer 1

The answer is that unfortunately no such thing exists. emacs-nav offer a file browser similar to the one in ECB and you can use something like helm to jump to various stuff in your project (like files, tags, imenu entries, etc). Small utils like projectile might also be helpful to you.

All in all using heavyweight tools like ECB is not the Emacs way and I guess this is the reason while its development has stagnated - few Emacs users would use a tool like that given there a smaller more flexible alternatives.

Stockjobber

Double vote for Helm now, will checkout emacs-nav & projectile – Howells

Answer 2

I'm use sr-speedbar to file browser http://emacswiki.org/emacs/SrSpeedbar

Fulk

Answer 3

I'm using ecb on emacs-24 with no problems. the only thing I had to add to my .emacs was:

(setq stack-trace-on-error t)

it prevents from throwing errors on ecb startup. What kind of window issues do you experience?

Incinerate

just to mention, I think that emacs cache + properly configured anything (helm) is much more convenient to use than ecb. at least in files navigation. I described this solution here – Incinerate

The windowing issue is thus: Emacs creates 4 windows anytime a popup is invoked (such as with Magit or Geben). Setting (setq pop-up-windows nil) Helps, but then every new buffer is in the same window -- stil not ideal. Again, only if ECB is activated. The main error I get all the time is ECB doesn't have permission to read some root level directory, though non are set to load on start. It happens intermittently, depending where I'm cwd'd (and in non-root locations). Still trying to diagnose. – Howells

But I'm going to check out your blog for the Helm setup, thanks! – Howells