10.3 Dependency Browser
The dependency browser shows the dependencies between source
files. Each item in the browser represents one source file.
In this browser, clicking on the right arrow in the title bar will
display the list of files that the selected file depends on. A file
depend on another one if it explicitly imports it (with
statement in Ada, or #include
in C/C++). Implicit dependencies
are currently not displayed in this browser, since the information is
accessible by opening the other direct dependencies.
Clicking on the left arrow in the title bar will display the list of
files that depend on the selected file.
This browser is accessible through the contextual menu in the
project view and the source editor, by selecting one of the following items:
- Show dependencies for file
-
This has the same effect as clicking on the right arrow for a file
already in the browser, and will display the direct dependencies for
that file.
- Show files depending on file
-
This has the same effect as clicking on the left arrow for a file
already in the browser, and will display the list of files that
directly depend on that file.
The background contextual menu in the browser adds a few entries to
the standard menu:
- Open file...
-
This menu entry will display an external dialog in which you can
select the name of a file to analyze.
- Recompute dependencies
-
This menu entry will check that all links displays in the dependency
browser are still valid. If not, they are removed. The arrows in the
title bar are also reset if necessary, in case new dependencies were
added for the files.
The browser is not refreshed automatically, since there are lots of
cases where the dependencies might change (editing source files,
changing the project hierarchy or the value of the scenario
variables, ...)
It also recomputes the layout of the graph, and will change the current
position of the boxes.
- Show system files
-
This menu entry indicates whether standard system files (runtime files
for instance in the case of Ada) are displayed in the browser. By
default, these files will only be displayed if you explicitly select
them through the
Open file
menu, or the contextual menu in the
project view.
- Show implicit dependencies
-
This menu entry indicates whether implicit dependencies should also be
displayed for the files. Implicit dependencies are files that are
required to compile the selected file, but that are not explicitly
imported through a
with
or #include
statement. For
instance, the body of generics in Ada is an implicit dependency.
Any time one of the implicit dependencies is modified, the selected
file should be recompiled as well.
The contextual menu available by right clicking on an item also adds a
number of entries:
- Analyze other file
-
This will open a new item in the browser, displaying the complement
file for the selected one. In Ada, this would be the body if you
clicked on a spec file, or the opposite. In C, it depends on the
naming conventions you specified in the project properties, but you
would generally go from a .h file to a .c file and back.
- Show dependencies for file
-
These play the same role as in the project view contextual menu