From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npois!ucbvax!C70:editor-people Newsgroups: fa.editor-p Title: Editor characteristics Article-I.D.: ucb.1276 Posted: Fri Jun 4 04:19:51 1982 Received: Sat Jun 5 01:35:52 1982 Reply-To: ople >From POURNE@MIT-MC Fri Jun 4 04:13:40 1982 I guess I did not see the original flames, and thus I can comment with some detachment from a user's viewpoint. I've put several million words through machines, starting with old portable typewriters and going on to what I've got now. Thus I know something of text creation and what's convenient, or at least I can delude myself into thinking I do. I have also written some programs, so I can at least see that what programmers may want will be different -- sometimes -- from what writers may want. First: I completely agree that cursor controls ought to be "directional". Old Electric Pencil would let the cursor go anywhere on the screen. I find it was FAR more convenient than the EMACS-like method that WRITE (my favorite editor) uses now. I don't WANT the cursor to go wandering over to the left side of the screen (as it inevitably does) when I am trying to drive it to the center or somewhere like that. Next: you certainly ought to have a way to drive the cursor quickly. WRITE uses control W,A,S,Z for the obvious directions; with control E to jump ahead a word, (control x jump back a word) and control T to erase the next word. This works nicely; it's easy to do. If the terminal has arrows, WRITE implements them in addition to the "cross" over on the left. Now after a few days of using WRITE I find that I can use the control key with left little finger and cursor controls with forefinger and never take my eyes off the screen; a big PLUS when typing in new text. For editing older text the system is even better since (unlike EMACS) it is one-handed and you can use a pencil or thumb through notes with the other. I can see how left-handed users might want a different arrrangement, though. I prefer replace mode to insert, although that I suppose would be a matter of custom; still, I find that it is easier to go back and type over mistakes, and I don't know how to kill them so easily in insert mode; if I hit two keys at once or get extraneous stuff in the text stream, I don't like to have to go delete it; it is easier to type over it. But I certainly want a very simple toggle to get from one to the other (control f does it in WRITE). (With control-f the cursor changes from transparent blob to underline so you can tell which mode you are in.) I rather prefer delete to do complex things, but I don't have what I prefer; an older version of WRITE made delete in replace mode kill the previous character by replacing it with a space. Now it always sucks it up and closes the text. I can live with that, but I liked the other way a little better. Incidentally, WRITE automatically rejustifies the paragraphs; you needn't do anything about that when you edit. I think it is the failure to do automatic rejustification that causes me to really dislike emacs, mince, and word star. It is just so much better not to have to think about that. I find that I do not want cr/lf at the ends of lines; in fact I do not want lines marked at all, just "paragrphs" ie "breaks" in the fill mode. Alas, many languages today including micro implementations of Pascal stubbornly refuse to believe that text doesn't come from Hollerith cards. Sigh. Enough flame; I do believe that discussions of what is wanted in editors are valuable. I may see if we can get the "rubber mode" implemented in WRITE. But I'll have to think about it.