Demonstrating Interlisp structure editing
I'm still exploring and learning Medley Interlisp but I finally grasp the basics of structure editing.
The increasing familiarity with the SEdit structure editor is making me more productive. I begin to appreciate the efficiency and elegance of the set of mouse gestures which, combined with keypresses, allow the selection and manipulation of a wide variety of Lisp and text structures.
The core of these gestures is a series of system-wide features and conventions available also in other Interlisp tools such as the TEdit rich text editor.
To demonstrate the basic structure gestures of SEdit, the default Medley Interlisp code editor, I recorded on my Chromebox this short screencast of an Interlisp Online session.
How do structure selection and manipulation work?
The video is supposed to need no explanation. I designed a few visual techniques that hopefully make the video self explanatory while reducing production time and effort.
I recorded a single cut screencast with no audio, in which the mouse pointer moves across the Medley Interlisp desktop highlighting the sequence of steps indicated in one window and carried out in another. The first is a TEdit window showing a document with the outline of the script of the video. Next to TEdit, a SEdit window is open on a Lisp source file in which I carry out the editing tasks listed in the script. Mouse gestures are deliberately slow to allow enought time to register and interpret the changes.
If you follow the mouse pointer, the only thing that moves on the screen, it should be clear what's going to happen next and what triggers an action.
Discuss...
Email | Reply @amoroso@fosstodon.org