Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!fs7.ece.cmu.edu!hudson.lm.com!news.pop.psu.edu!psuvax1!news.ecn.bgu.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!scipio.cyberstore.ca!vanbc.wimsey.com!unixg.ubc.ca!info.ucla.edu!library.ucla.edu!csulb.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!kcooper
From: kcooper@netcom.com (Ken Cooper)
Subject: Re: Smalltalk formatting styles...
Message-ID: <kcooperD8q742.3w4@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
References: <9504291907.AA05711@fred.nfuel.com> <3oulbo$lc3@news.iastate.edu> <3ovhu3$h2g@mastermind.odi.com> <D8GwM2.4Ip@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 14:04:50 GMT
Lines: 39
Sender: kcooper@netcom16.netcom.com

In article <D8GwM2.4Ip@hplb.hpl.hp.com>,
Gunther Walther <gw@hplb.hpl.hp.com> wrote:
>Bill Smith (bsmith@odi.com) wrote:
>: latyr@iastate.edu (Leslie A Tyrrell) wrote:

>Ps: please let us not start an editor war, I mentioned vi because
>    it is very line oriented. There are other editors which are
>    capable to deal with more complicated formats that are not
>    line oriented. Maybe my point is that the current ST editor
>    (at least in VW) is not very appropriate.
>
>    ... The ideal formatter should be
>    configurable and maybe even programable. It should be
>    portable accross different ST implementations. And it should
>    have been written a long time ago...

It has been written. Well, currently for Digitalk ST, but the
other vendors' versions are coming.  Our new programmer's
editor edIt has a configurable formatting engine, that allows
you to define your own formatting style.  There are a few 
little details we'd like to improve on (like retaining the
white space the programmer puts between statements), but for
the most part it works very well.  Further, you can turn
it on to 'filter' methods as you browse them without actually
altering the code. This provides a very effective means to
reading others code without the added brain strain of 
translating their formatting.

This thread has been very interesting.  When we first were
designing edIt's formatting last year, we asked naiively
what people wanted in a formatter on Compuserve, and 
generated a similar thread.  Since we don't like forcing
people to do things in one way, we worked hard to come
up with something that would satisfy just about everyone.
Hopefully, once edIt's out on all the platforms, these
discussions will be moot.

Ken Cooper
Cooper & Peters, Inc.
