An Editor that Skips to the End of a Def

[Manuel Graune]

Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo at geek-central.gen.new_zealand> writes:

> In message <m3hcll72wx.fsf at uriel.graune.org>, Manuel Graune wrote:
>
>> Matthew Woodcraft <mattheww at chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:
>> 
>>> Lawrence D'Oliveiro  <ldo at geek-central.gen.new_zealand> wrote:>
>>>
>>>> <http://www.asktog.com/SunWorldColumns/S02KeyboardVMouse3.html>
>>>
>> And "cursor keys"? Please, every self respecting editor has ways for
>> moving around quite a bit more efficiently.
>> 
>> And on top of that a use case, which no one in his right mind would
>> do this way. Accomplishing this task with search-and-replace would
>> have taken about 10 seconds. With Mouse or Keyboard.
>
> Just to reinforce the point that the above was in no way an artificial or
> isolated case:
>
> <http://www.asktog.com/TOI/toi06KeyboardVMouse1.html>
> <http://www.asktog.com/TOI/toi22KeyboardVMouse2.html>

Without knowing more about the design of those studies, further
discussion is kind of pointless. I would really like to see a comparison
of "mouse-centered IDEs" (e. g. Eclipse) vs. "keyboard-centered IDEs"
(e. g. Emacs). used for some small progamming task (and not isolated
editing problems). For one thing, most programmers more or less
<quote>
are not normal people. We tend to have superior memories, we actually
grasp boolean logic, we have formed priesthoods around the most
egregious interfaces, and we have a firm belief that the average citizen
is in search of an editor for his daily C and Pascal coding tasks.

We are not firmly rooted in the real world.
</quote>

So I'm not really concerned about the first-time user, for which without
a doubt a mouse-based user-interface is easier (and probably faster). I
need an editor/IDE I feel comfortable with after using it for a
month or longer. And for the record: Being subjectively faster is good
enough for me. I don't really care if I could have saved 15 minutes at
the end of the day with the objectively faster interface, if I don't
feel slowed down.  

But since this is not a usability-NG and I originally just wanted to
point out that the specific example is far from ideal, I won't
continue this discussion in this NG. If you want to, you can contact me
by mail.

Regards,

Manuel


-- 
A hundred men did the rational thing. The sum of those rational choices was
called panic. Neal Stephenson -- System of the world
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