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A scene from Ireland

Edlib

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Thinking about a better Editor

My earlier note about wanting a Better Emacs has left me thinking about more details, and I find that if I don't write them down, they just go around and around in my head. So maybe I'll write them down.

The main parts of the editor would be

  • Internal structured representation of information
  • Parsing input source into internal structure
  • Rendering internal structure into storage format (unparsing)
  • Rendering internal structure onto a window for display
  • Internal language for writing applications

Beyond Spreadsheets

It is time that so-called "Office suites" got beyond the spreadsheet.

Spread sheets are a wonderful and powerful idea. I have put them to good use several times. But they are tied to an idea that is no longer relevant - the idea from which they got their name.

A spread sheet is basically an infinitely (or atleast indefinately) large two dimensional table of cells. Each cell can do calculations based on values in other cells. This is great for doing calculations on columns or rows or whole tables. This works really well. There is just one problem.

I've never wanted to have an indefinately large table.

I want a better EMACS

I'm a great fan of EMACS. I use it every day for reading mail, for code development, and for just about everything involving text files. But I'm really hoping for something better to come along.

The problem is that while EMACS does have a reasonably good mail reader (VM, I use it constantly) and a very useful IDE bits and pieces and even a web browser, none of these applications are really great.

I think the reason for this is that it is really hard to write applications for EMACS.