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by BoppreH 4062 days ago
Interesting research, specially because it has a lower learning curve. I see it as a halfway between fully structured and fully textual.

The large screenshot[0] is a textbook example of structured editor, but the cursor moves around as if it was text. It looks like the document is modeled as a combination of complete structures plus a few incomplete pieces of text. That's interesting because you get the benefits of structured display without paying for structured input.

However, I'm not sure I would use this. It's not clear how to call the Δ function, for example. You can consult the manual or ctrl+c the character, but that's not desirable. Also, does erasing the dot after ≱ yield ≥ or ≯?

I do like structured input. You type an awful lot less and there's no meddling with commas and parenthesis. The learning curve is tough, but Vim users are here to prove people are willing. If structured editing lives up to the hype, of course.

Anyway, I'm always glad to see research in this area.

[0] http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/liveprogramming...

1 comments

> Also, does erasing the dot after ≱ yield ≥ or ≯?

Yes. Actually, in my newest prototype, the dots disappear and we treat ≱ as having 3 characters (the first is !, the second is >, the third =). Deleting the first character is deleting the ! (you get ≥), or deleting the last character is deleting the = (you get ≯).