I found it!

Well, not really. I asked people who told me. After expending far too much time searching through key listings and web pages, and wearing out my welcome by asking my friends who have been using the Eclipse editor for quite a while, I finally remembered that there's an IRC channel where helpful people lurk in order to help clue-free noobs like me. Maybe I've been listening to the commercial world too much, but somehow it managed to escape my notice that open source software really does have support, and darned quick support. I think maybe it's unwise to deny programmers access to open source, and it's certainly unwise of any company using open source to not allow access to the support forums. It is often the shortest distance between here and productivity. If it were commercial software, I doubt I would have waited for an hour on a tech support line (and paid for the time) in order to ask productivity-enhancing questions. I would tend to save the support calls for "real problems."

The answer to the problem of switching between editor tabs is Control-PgUp and Control-PgDn.

The answer getting a quick answer to prob lems is #eclipse at freenode.net. Thanks to the good people there, esp "buggs".

Normally we comment on larger ideas and bigger issues, but this time I just wanted to let people know where the heck the setting is:

Window->Preferences->Java->Code Style->Formatter

Click “Edit” or “Show” (depending on which appears)

now you can go to Indentation.

Make sure you set the number of spaces/tab to a reasonable number. I’m on a project now where we use 2. I prefer 3 or 4, but I’m just this guy. Also make sure you choose to use only spaces, no tabs. I don’t care if using tabs saves a few bytes here and there, it saves a lot of hassle if we all use spaces.

Also pop over to the Blank Lines tab and change the option so that it no longer double-spaces your stinkin’ field declarations. I don’t know who likes it that way, but it ain’t me, bub.

Okay. Now click buttons that say “OK” until you are back to your normal Eclipse screen. Get a ginger ale and a stresstab and GBTW!

Welcome to the new Object Mentor blog. We've upgraded a server and upgraded our blog software to be more attractive and convenient. David has the software up and running on a newly-reinstalled Debian server. We will have much more frequent security updates, and we're able to use more modern software in general.

The blog will have a few changes. You may not see a special TimOttinger area separate from the RobertMartin or DavidChelimsky areas (or the other OM staffers). The way you reply will be different too, but hopefully you will find that we preserve the same basic spirit and high degree of interactivity.

The search function is more interactive and powerful than the old too. You can search for articles by keyword, in case you're looking for information about the Law of Demeter or Single Responsibility Principle.

We hope you enjoy the new blog as much as you enjoyed the old. The old one is still available as a read-only archive (at least until we migrate all the old blogs forward).