3 Common Features

3.9 Using different views

Every tool in the environment has several different views, each of which can display information which is pertinent to the task at hand. The views that are available for each tool are listed in a Views menu available on the menu bar for that tool; just choose a command from this menu to switch to a different view. When choosing a different view, the layout of the tool itself changes.

In tools which are browsers, different views allow you to display different pieces of information about the same objects; for instance, in the class browser you can switch from a view which shows you information about the slots in a given Common Lisp class to one which shows information about the initargs of the class.

In other tools, different views may show you completely different types of related information. For example, in the listener you can switch from the default view you have already seen to one which shows you any output that has been generated by the listener.

All tools have a default view when you first start them. The default view is the one which you are most likely to make most use of, or the one which you use first. When you first start the built-in editor, the default view is the one which allows you to edit files by typing text. When you start a class browser, the default view shows you the slots available for the current class, as you have already seen. For simplicity, the tutorial given in Chapter 2 used only these default views.

Three views are common across many tools. As with many other features in the environment, they display information in a similar way in whichever tool supports them.

The graph view is a view in which the hierarchical nature of information is emphasized. Choose View > Graph to switch to the graph view in any tool which supports it. See Chapter 5, "Manipulating Graphs", for details about this view, which contains a variety of features.
The text view displays information in list form. You can double-click on any item in a list to provide a different level of information. Choose View > Text to display the text view in any tool which supports its use.
The output view is used to view system output (typically compiler output) which is relevant to the tool in question. Choose View > Output to display this view in any tool which supports it. The output view is functionally identical to the output browser; see Chapter 10, "The Output Browser" for details.

3.9.1 - Sorting items in views

Common LispWorks User Guide, Liquid Common Lisp Version 5.0 - 18 OCT 1996

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