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Date:Mon Aug 21 12:31:39 2003 
Subject:Re: poplog interactive mode - PS -> Syntax editor 
From:Chris Dollin 
Volume-ID:1030821.02 

 eas-lab@absamail.co.za wrote:

> That confirms my suggestion: since poplog/ved is so easily extendable,
> extra value (more powerfull IDE) can be economically acheived, and
> therefore by definition should be done.   BTW if YOU've added
> 'completion' it should be be made public to the poplog community !

I haven't; despite its attractions, it doesn't seem to me to supply
enough playback (to *me*). Syntax problems don't account for enough
problem time. (It would be different for beginners, of course.)

>> Pop doesn't *have* syntax diagrams. We are talking Pop here, aren't we?
>> Examples.
> 
> Well let me use that question as a vehicle to test & show what I mean by
> 'menu-assisted' tasking:
> * I'll go to my linux box and trace the number of steps I need to do,
> to find the 'syntax diagrams':
> 
> ./nS > Poplog > <CTRL> ref syntax ==>  REF * POPSYNTAX
>      Full syntax diagrams of Pop-11.

Wow. I never knew that. How ... terrifying.

> Since I can't cut and paste the syntax diagram, I will use the
>  corresponding text (on the same REF * POPSYNTAX) to answer your question
> about 'decision points':
> 
> ]     4.3   Iteration
> ]             ... while
> ]             ... until
> ]             ... repeat
> ]             ... for
> 
> So when the designer (vs. typist/clerk) decides that he wants to use an
> Iteration construct, he simply 'picks' the <iterantion construct>
> menu (which is itself one of a limited selection, based on the point
> in the syntax were he is/was), and selects WHICH iteration class...etc.

[What's this "designer vs typist/clerk" stuff? We're programmers; we
code.] 

Oh, OK: I was thinking that "at this point, we have an expression,
that can begin with lots of things ..."; I have to decide first
that it's a loop, and then hit the loop menu button. You can certainly
reduce the number of choices at each step by carving up the choice
space. 

I think we've established that it's *assisted* editing, not *syntax*
editing, that you're talking about, right? I have no objection to
assisted editing (in principle).
   
>   PS. the fact that facilities, like 'code folding/hiding' can be added
>   incrementally, is further reason why it should be done - soon.

I suspect myself that code folding is a solution to the wrong problem.
But, not having used a folding editor, it remains a suspicion.

-- 
Chris "electric hedgehog" Dollin
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