HomePage |
RecentChanges |
EditorIndex |
TextEditorFamilies |
Preferences
Naturally, there is a good discussion about editor power in the
[SoftPanorama] pages.
Another good discussion is in ESR's writings on Unix: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch13s03.html
Among the most powerful editors, I would elect the following:
To be a high powered editor, you have to have the following features (in my opinion):
Of course other people have other opinions, and one of those is that
an editor with all the features above would be considered bloated. 'High power'
should be interpreted in context, especially in terms of code size. If you
posit a 'lean and mean' editor (say no more than 32K, pref 16K or less) a
set of criteria might be:
- If text-based:
- command language which includes conditionals, looping etc
- orthogonal command language which is easy to learn but still powerful
- can be used in batch mode to process text (eg like a 'sed' or 'awk' filter)
- does not make assumptions about text, i.e. full 8-bit clean, no word-processor-like modification of text, can handle various types of end-of-line markers.
- If screen-based:
- all keystroke sequences 'soft'
- ability to learn keystroke macros
- intuitive model of the mapping from text to screen display, consistently treats either the text as the source of truth, or the screen, but not some indecisive mixture of the two
- does not force keystroke repetition to get things done (leading to RSA! (Repetitive Strain Injury!))
- Ideally both text based and screen based in one small and simple package
- allows escape to command mode for complex edits
- starts in screen mode if display supports it, otherwise in command-line mode (and always the latter if invoked from a batch script)
CategoryCommandLine?
CategoryMultipleBuffers?
CategoryRegularExpressions?
CategoryLargeFileHandling
CategoryFileManager?