[TxMt] 1001 suggestions in shining armour

Jeffrey Robert Spies jspies at nd.edu
Fri Jun 9 15:11:51 UTC 2006


On Jun 9, 2006, at 10:49 AM, Rob McBroom wrote:

> On Jun 8, 2006, at 10:14 PM, Timothy Bates wrote:
>
>> The benefits are massive: no need for pixel-perfect (pixel- 
>> perfect!) dragging of a selection across numerous lines (often  
>> several vertical cm). Just a single crude drag-as-you-like option  
>> select. Followed by a normal "click here to edit" selection.
>
> Pixel-perfect? Unless I'm missing something, it seems to require  
> merely character-perfect mousing, which is 1) not that difficult,  
> and 2) something you have to do all the time anyway. There are ways  
> to make these selections even easier (using the keyboard has been  
> mentioned). I also find that (using the mouse) a lot of times it's  
> easier to do a regular style selection, let go of the mouse, then  
> tap the option key to toggle column-mode on.

I am with Tim on this.  Character-perfect mousing is inefficient from  
an HCI point of view if you can accomplish the same thing with gross  
(read: sweeping) movements, both with the mouse and the keyboard.    
And selections with the keyboard as you suggest are incredibly  
frustrating, but with an intelligent block-edit mode (like Tim  
mentioned, in SubEthaEdit), you could navigate using the keyboard  
navigation commands you are used to, or with your character-perfect  
mousing, and not lose your selection-mode.  Currently, we have to  
select into column edit mode, edit, move the cursor, select back into  
column edit mode, edit, etc. The change Tim mentioned reduces this  
process dramatically.

Jeff.




More information about the textmate mailing list