Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!watsol!tbray
From: tbray@watsol.waterloo.edu (Tim Bray)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: A new idea (?)
Message-ID: <19618@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Date: 9 Jan 90 02:23:37 GMT
References: <1558@aber-cs.UUCP> <129799@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <PCG.90Jan3180137@thor.cs.aber.ac.uk>
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: tbray@watsol.waterloo.edu (Tim Bray)
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In article <PCG.90Jan3180137@thor.cs.aber.ac.uk> pcg@thor.cs.aber.ac.uk 
(Piercarlo Grandi) paints a vision of the editor of the future, with only
a moderate amount of handwaving.

First off, the idea of separating the display logic from the buffer
management logic is 100% right; among other things, it gives you the
ability to write outlandish new display schemes for outlandish new
data.

A subtle but important point: one of the most powerful models of text is
as a linear sequence of bytes, without reference to `records' of any
kind.  This model is behind the strength of Unix.  Sadly, none of the
popular unix editors handle record-less files very well.  (Yes, I know
emacs can take it, but is extremely stupid about redisplay and performance
goes down the tubes).  As texts grow larger and are treated more as
database contents & less as typewriter-output, the concept of a 'line'
becomes less and less useful until it is a dangerous hindrance [Cf. Bray,
`Lessons of the New OED Project', Proc. Winter '89 Usenix].  Anyhow,
don't build any assumptions about occurrences of the '\n' character into 
your software.

Also, pcg@aber says:

>There is (and this is much wieder subject) a fundamental divide...
>The first type of
>programmers are 'hackers', ...
>the major example of this attitude is Bill Joy;

Well, since this is comp.editors and you mention Joy, we gotta talk vi.
I personally use emacs, but have a great deal of experience with vi,
including work on a port to VMS.  Vi is old-fashioned and inflexible, but
it provides an amazingly functional interface while consuming almost no
machine resources.  Some of the things inside the implementation are very
elegant.  Credit where credit is due.

Cheers, Tim Bray,
New OED Project         \
 -and-                   > Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Open Text Systems, Inc. /