Geet Duggal

Explorations in the Computer and Natural Sciences

Column-based text editing

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Many text editors have a “block” or “column” mode where items can be copied, pasted, and edited vertically rather than horizontally.  I’ve never come across an editor (or something like a Vi mod) that allows actual column-based editing.   This implies no scrolling up or down.  When you reach the bottom of the screen you go back to the top like a two-column paper.  This would imply scrolling left or right.   This mode would seem somewhat natural for a variety of reasons: it’s often easier to read lines of code and sentences when there is a more limited width (and this can also be more space-efficient for wider screens):

column-based-editing1

Assuming no explicit line-breaks within textual paragraphs and code that can fit within the column limits, I wonder if there are some other major issues with this…


Written by Geet

December 7, 2008 at 8:23 pm

Posted in Half-baked

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