2 ms·
> A nice thing that can be added is a pair of serialization / deserialization functions for the state needed for your commands. I wonder if this was the origin
by flukus 9y ago
> A nice thing that can be added is a pair of serialization / deserialization functions for the state needed for your commands.
I wonder if this was the origin of modal text editors. Maybe they were designed for machine/programmer convenience more than machine convenience originally.
- ZenPsycho 9y agothey were designed around the constraints of slow teletype machines and slow 300 baud modems. they make no sense as a UI until you take into account how long you used to need to wait for a computer to respond
- DennisP 9y agoA modal editor is not necessarily less efficient in keystrokes than one using control keys; modal just means you don't have to hold your control keys down while completing the command. Using keyboard commands is often faster than pointing with a mouse, if you take advantage of structures in the text; e.g. "select everything inside the parens." And if you're doing that all day, it becomes second nature to build macros on the fly.
- ZenPsycho 9y agoLess efficient in keystrokes? who said anything about that?
- DennisP 9y agoIf you use a keyboard-based editor, presumably one that takes fewer keystrokes is a better UI, other things being equal. (There's also learning curve to consider but everyone has their own tradeoff on that.) Of course there are also mouse-based editors, which my second paragraph addresses.