Browsing the workspace

The VisualAge for Java IDE lets you view all the Java programming information that you work with.  It provides many ways of looking at the same information, with a variety of focuses and views. 

The most effective way to learn how to view code and other information in the IDE is to experiment.  The environment is complex and powerful, and if you explore, you will find it has a large degree of flexibility.

The descriptions of the browsers in the online help usually assume that the layout settings are set to the defaults that the product is shipped with.  For example, most discussions of panes assume you have selected horizontal orientation (in the Window menu).  Other settings that affect the appearance and behavior of browsers can be changed in the Options dialog.

The Workbench
The Workbench is the main window into the workspace. You organize and perform your work from the Workbench. It gives you a view of all the program elements that are in the workspace and their unresolved problems.

From the Workbench, you can open other windows and browsers that help you with your tasks.

Browsers
Browsers are specialized windows that help you with programming tasks. A browser gives you a focused view of an individual program element that is in the workspace and lets you work at a granularity that is finer than in the Workbench. The tasks that you perform in a particular browser are similar to those in the Workbench, except that they are focused on one program element (and, usually, the program elements that it contains). You can open a browser on a project, package, class, interface, or method.

Working in a browser focused on a particular program element has the following advantages over working in the Workbench:

To open a browser on a program element, select the element (in the Workbench or another browser) and select Open from the pop-up menu. To open the browser to a particular page, select the element, select Open To from the pop-up menu, and select the page from the list presented.

To get help with each page, pane, toolbar button, and menu in the workbench and browsers, go to the browser page in question and press F1.

Changing the default browsing style
By default, a new window is opened every time you select a program element to browse. You have the option of changing the browsing style so that when you open a browser on a program element, rather than opening a new window, the IDE simply opens the browser in the current window.  Then you can move back and forth between "windows" by using the Back niback.gif (996 bytes) and Forward niforwrd.gif (991 bytes) toolbar buttons, similar to most Internet browser interfaces. 

To change the browsing style, select Options from the Window menu.   On the General page, select the Current browser option for the Open an item in option.

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Workspace
Development without files

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Moving between windows
Changing the IDE browsing style
Searching for a program element in the workspace
Setting IDE options