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From: landauer@morocco.Sun.COM (Doug Landauer)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: why do editors "shrink-wrap" the text?
Message-ID: <97499@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 5 Apr 89 00:37:02 GMT
References: <1686@wpi.wpi.edu>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: landauer@sun.com (Doug Landauer)
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Lines: 26

In article <1686@wpi.wpi.edu>, jhallen@wpi.wpi.edu (Joseph H Allen) wrote:
>    And, most importantly and with religeous intensity, when moving
>    between lines, the cursor MUST NOT EVER change column position.
>    If the cursor gets placed after the end of a line or if it gets
>    placed in the middle of a tab field, then, on the next command
>    which requires the cursor to be in a valid position, the cursor
>    should jump to the beginning of the next line, end of current line
>    or beginning or end of the tab field, depending on the command.
 
WHY should the cursor jump at all??!?!?  Why is there such a ridiculous
notion as "valid position"???   If the cursor is out beyond the end of
a line and you start typing, then dammit the editor should insert
enough spaces to allow you to type there!  If it's "in a tab field",
then the tab should convert to the appropriate amount of spaces!
 
In other words, I agree with your first sentence more than you do!  I
hate this notion that programmer's editors (vi & emacs) have of some
kind of "shrink-wrap" covering the existing text in a file.  My mental
model of a text file is that it is like a piece of paper.  I move the
pen (the cursor) and then write stuff there.  *Right there!*.  Not at
some location that the editor picks because it was easy for the guy who
designed the editor.
-- 
  Doug Landauer -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. -- Software Products Group
  landauer@sun.com   or   ...!sun!landauer
-- P.S.  does gnuemacs have a mode where it works that way?