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The idea that really excites me is 'STRUCTURE editor as a language' - that is, the same sort of grammar as Vim, but manipulating semantically meaningful structu

by swift 14y ago

The idea that really excites me is 'STRUCTURE editor as a language' - that is, the same sort of grammar as Vim, but manipulating semantically meaningful structures like expressions or functions instead of text. I'd love to see an editor reenvisioned completely around that concept, with "normal" text editing only as a fallback. (Of course, Vim does have text objects, which are fantastic - one of the chief reasons I use Vim. But they have limitations; I think you can go a lot further.)

pekk 14y ago
The significant development there is to efficiently work with ASTs for the different languages. Maybe the only reason that kind of implementation isn't shared is because it is typically rolled into commercial IDEs rather than being opened up and exposed in a way that is accessible to existing editors.
aerique 14y ago
Ah, nevermind. I totally misread your comment. Not deleting my comment for the link to the Paredit video. Paredit would be a step in that direction: http://emacsrocks.com/e14.html http://emacsrocks.com/e14.html I also recall editors of old having that functionality (Zmacs?).
- swift 14y ago
  Paredit is super great, indeed. Lisp is perfect for this sort of thing.
michaell2 14y ago
so have I got a deal for you :) Anyway, my recently published "nestgrid" framework is precisely that (among other possible uses). A mix of xml editor, spreadsheet, direct manipulation of objects ui, and all around cool thing; flash demo included. See http://nestgrid.wordpress.com/nestgrid-paper/ http://nestgrid.wordpress.com/nestgrid-paper/ EDIT: fixed url as per @nocman's advice.
- nocman 14y ago
  You muffed the URL -- here's the one that works http://nestgrid.wordpress.com/nestgrid-paper/ http://nestgrid.wordpress.com/nestgrid-paper/ :-D
- swift 14y ago
  This looks really interesting! I look forward to reading through it tonight.
stcredzero 14y ago
I think that's genius! Languages have parallel syntax structures in common, more often than anything else!
gcr 14y ago
Take a look at the E editor, it marries Vim's exceedingly efficient editing language with semantically meaningful text objects. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Text_Editor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Text_Editor (The website seems to be down, which is a shame) Or if you have days to burn, emacs+paredit+evil can russtle quite a few jimmies if you take the time to define some custom keybindings for it.

by swift 14y ago

pekk 14y ago

The significant development there is to efficiently work with ASTs for the different languages. Maybe the only reason that kind of implementation isn't shared is because it is typically rolled into commercial IDEs rather than being opened up and exposed in a way that is accessible to existing editors.

aerique 14y ago

Ah, nevermind. I totally misread your comment. Not deleting my comment for the link to the Paredit video. Paredit would be a step in that direction: http://emacsrocks.com/e14.html http://emacsrocks.com/e14.html I also recall editors of old having that functionality (Zmacs?).

swift 14y ago
Paredit is super great, indeed. Lisp is perfect for this sort of thing.

michaell2 14y ago

so have I got a deal for you :) Anyway, my recently published "nestgrid" framework is precisely that (among other possible uses). A mix of xml editor, spreadsheet, direct manipulation of objects ui, and all around cool thing; flash demo included. See http://nestgrid.wordpress.com/nestgrid-paper/ http://nestgrid.wordpress.com/nestgrid-paper/ EDIT: fixed url as per @nocman's advice.

nocman 14y ago
You muffed the URL -- here's the one that works http://nestgrid.wordpress.com/nestgrid-paper/ http://nestgrid.wordpress.com/nestgrid-paper/ :-D
swift 14y ago
This looks really interesting! I look forward to reading through it tonight.

stcredzero 14y ago

I think that's genius! Languages have parallel syntax structures in common, more often than anything else!

gcr 14y ago

Take a look at the E editor, it marries Vim's exceedingly efficient editing language with semantically meaningful text objects. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Text_Editor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Text_Editor (The website seems to be down, which is a shame) Or if you have days to burn, emacs+paredit+evil can russtle quite a few jimmies if you take the time to define some custom keybindings for it.