You can sort the items displayed in the main area of any view using the Preferences dialog for a given tool. In tools where items can be sorted in this way, there are at least the following three commands available:
. Click on the General tab, if necessary.
Figure 3.5 Example Preferences dialog
Notice that some Preference dialogs, such as the one shown above, have several tabs. In these cases, the options described in this section are always available in the General tab.
The left hand side of the Preferences dialog is labeled Sort.
The options available vary according to the tool, but at least the following will be available:
Sorts symbols in a list or graph according to the name of each item. The packages that the symbols are resident in are ignored when this option is used; thus, the symbol
vv:allocate
would be listed before
aa:vectorize
.
Sorts symbols in a list or graph according to the package they are listed in. Thus, all symbols in the
aa
package would be listed together, as would all symbols in the
vv
package. In addition, the
aa
package would be listed before the
vv
package. Within a given package, objects are listed in alphabetical order when using this option: thus,
aa:carry-out-conditions
would be listed before
aa:vectorize
.
Lists all symbols in a graph or list in the order in which they are defined in the source code. This can sometimes be a useful option in itself, and is always the quickest option available. You may sometimes want to use this option if you are displaying a large number of items and you are not filtering those items in any way.
Note: There are sometimes other sort options available in the Sort area of the Preferences dialog, depending on the nature of the tool itself. These options are described in the chapter specific to each tool.
Only those views whose main area consists of a list or a graph can be sorted. In particular, the default views of tools such as the Listener or the editor, which is an editor window which you can type directly into, cannot be sorted.