I often use the Eclipse feature (Galileo) of suggested error corrections to automatically create code stubs or to refactor things. For example, I would write a method that calls other methods which don't exist yet, then move the mouse over the error message and click on "create method". Or, change this to the class name and choose "add static modifier" from the quick fixes.
I think this is very convenient because it lets me stay in one place in my code and sort of "remotely" wire up what's not currently visible on my screen. What I think is annoying though, is that I have to leave the keyboard, hover my mouse over the error symbol, wait for the tooltip to pop up, and click on the option (doing that, I sometimes move the mouse a little over the edge and the tooltip goes away again - very annoying).
Am I missing a faster method here? I can't seem to find a keyboard shortcut, but then I have overlooked stuff from the huge preference dialog before.
Ctrl+1 : Quick Fix.
(Cmd+1 on Mac)
Just put your cursor on the part you suspect you can perform an action (correction, refactoring, ...) and hit the Quick Fix shortcut. The same popup will be displayed, and you can select the right option with the up and down keys.
That, combined with Ctrl+3 (Quick Access) gives you most of eclipse features at your fingertips ;)
See also:
Eclipse Tip: Shortcut to Quick Fix
My Favorite Eclipse Shortcut: Quick Fix
Eclipse hotkeys: eclipse shortcuts gold mine.
As an additional tip, a specific type of quick fix I use all the time has a dedicated shortcut:
Alt+Shift+J: Add Javadoc comment stub for current method.
After using ctrl+1 like mentioned in the top answer, press ctrl + enter to apply the selected fix all to problems of the same category.
In general, keyboard shortcuts in IDEs (and code tools in general) are coming from a user principle that holds that the more your hands/fingers can remain poised over the keyboard (as in the f-j centered "touch typist" position), the more productive you can become. This is probably why the use of the number keypad is not encouraged, or other keys, less common to the most basic layout keyboard, are not used. Many hold that useful keyboard shortcuts should be easily reachable from this position.
One thing I will say about eclipse keyboard shortcuts is that if you use a popular Windows presentation utility called Zoom-it, you need to turn that off when using eclipse. There are several show-stopper conflicts between the two, such as Ctrl-1 and Ctrl-3.
Related
I've programmed in Emacs for a while, and I'm starting to learn Java in Eclipse. I prefer not to have to take my hands off the keyboard in order to see errors that Eclipse marks in the code... so I'd rather not hover over them, (plus the red X on the left margin is annoyingly small and hard to target for a hover)... is there a way to get them to pop up simply by moving the cursor to that point?
The "Show Tooltip Description" command usually has the keybinding of F2. You can change it on the Keys preference page if you like.
There is Hover in Eclipse, which enable a quick doc when cursor flies through a word. I already know I can enable "show quick doc on mouse move" in Jetbrains to get that feature.
But, in Eclipse, I can also press F2 to focus (popup a small window puffed with quick doc), even though the cursor's somewhere else. With plugin like Vrapper and IdeaVim, most of time I can free both my hands to get them dirty with keyboard, so 'F2 focus' means a lot to me in Eclipse. I miss this feature while I'm using Jetbrains(AS), how to enable it?
Accidentally, I found the default shortcut Ctrl+Q (Quick Documentation) will meet. As I'm using Vim like plugin IdeaVim, Ctrl+Q here means block mode. But it's not a big deal, I just have to bind another key for this.
I find Eclipse's (Eclipse 3.7, Indigo, running under Mac OS X 10.6.8) Find/Replace floating dialog box to be very annoying. Part of the time it ends up obscuring the search results. Is there any way to have Eclipse move the Find/Replace somewhere else? I'd like it to be a pop-up view, as I often do with the Console, Servers, Outline, and other views. However, if it could be incorporated into the view which it's searching, that would be great, too.
Eclipse's Find / Replace dialog is a dialog, not a view, so you can't drag and drop it to one of the view areas.
Here's a Eclipse search plugin that might work for you. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to get the Software Update link.
Worst case, you could write your own Eclipse plug-in that creates a view that does a Find / Replace.
TL;DR
Find/replace cannot be used as a view. Here are two ways to find text without obstructing the search:
Use incremental search (CTRL+J)
Use the quick search plugin (CTRL+SHIFT+L)
Pros and cons
Both approaches behave differently from the traditional find/replace and may require some getting used to.
Approach 1.
It works out of the box, no need to install a plugin, but it (currently) does not support pasting nor searching for the current selection (but there is CTRL+K for the latter). You can use UP and DOWN or repeat CTRL+J or CTRL+SHIFT+J to jump between matches.
Approach 2.
This still opens a dialog, but one which integrates the search results rather than obscuring them. I suggest resizing it to have a good preview size.
The default shortcut shadows the "Show Key Assist" original, but this can be changed. It is an extra install and AFAIK only supports case sensitive searches, but it supports searching for the selection and pasting.
It shows matches across files, starting with the top open editor (if you have more than one visible, e.g. side by side, it sometimes does not start with the one you were last on). You can move between matches with UP and DOWN and hit enter to go back to the editor on the selected match.
NOTE
I suppose on OSX you can replace CTRL with CMD in keyboard shortcuts above to achieve the same, but I could not test it. The shortcuts can be customized in Preferences->General->Keys
Here are the ways the Eclipse documentation states you can navigate the Content Assist list:
You can use the mouse or the keyboard
(Up Arrow, Down Arrow, Page Up, Page
Down, Home, End, Enter) to navigate
and select lines in the list.
But all of the options require you to move your hands significantly away from their natural place on the keyboard!
Are there any other, quicker ways I can navigate this list? Something like tab, or the j/k from vi?
This is a great feature, and you can implement it like so: bind movement keys in Eclipse's key binder and then use them in the content assist menu!
Preferences/General/Keys
Line Down: Bind to Ctrl+K
Line up: Bind to Ctrl+I
(both when 'Editing Java Source')
and then try moving with Ctrl-K/I when the content assist pops up!
In Kepler, as jed mentions in the comments, select "when editing text" instead and it should work.
If you try to fill in the content manually, Eclipse will move.
The search is quite advanced, e.g. "ArL" can match ArrayList, etc., so if you know what you are looking for, instead of navigation you could use search.
This is certainly not a solution for everyone, but if you switch to the Emacs keyboard layout you can just use the key bindings for the "previous line" and "next line" commands, e.g., Ctrl-P and Ctrl-N.
I could have sworn I saw it once before in a screencast where someone had the find/replace window docked in their Eclipse environment.
However looking through the list of options in "Window > Show" the closest thing I can find is the Search window.
I find that I use it quite a bit and with larger monitors these days I figure I could afford to have it open in my perspective all the time.
Is this possible?
Thanks.
One poor-man's workaround is to dock a view that you don't need in a part of Eclipse where you want the find/replace view and then place the find/replace dialog on top of that like this:
Clearly this is a huge kludge but it does work.
I am not sure about that, since Fast views are:
icons allowing users to quickly display different views that have been created as fast views
And the search/replace is a Dialog, not a View..
(source: bpsite.net)
(That Dialog box is not like Views, which support editors, also have their own menus. Some views also have their own toolbars.)
The help page mentions:
Fast views are hidden views that can be quickly opened and closed. They work like other views except they do not take up space in your Workbench window.
This might not be an exact answer for the question. But this works like a charm.
Press ctrl + j and keep typing...
Use ctrl + k to go on
Use shift key wherever required.
Use Edit > Incremental Find Next (Ctrl+J) or Edit > Incremental Find Previous (Ctrl+Shift+J) to enter the incremental find mode, and start typing the string to match. Matches are found incrementally as you type. The search string is shown in the status line. Press Ctrl+J or Ctrl+Shift+J to go to the next or previous match. Press Enter or Esc to exit incremental find mode.