[Oberon] Gadgets for SyntaxConstrainedEditor

[B. Smith-Mannschott]

On Mar 6, 2005, at 12:23, easlab at absamail.co.za wrote:

> Why should we be punished to pick chars off a keyboard, a-la-1965,
> when we could pick structures which are constrained to be syntactically
> correct at each stage of the refinement process ?

In googling for Syntax-Directed and Structured Editing, I found
section 2.3 "Structured Text Editors" of R. Miller's thesis
_Lightweight Structure in Text_, which offers some insights into the
trade-offs involved.

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~rcm/papers/thesis/ch2.pdf

A few (6?) years back I did some thinking along these lines (also
hittinug upon using Gadgets as a convenient mechanism for implementing
it).  I finally dropped that line if inquiry after deciding, in light
of what I'd been able to research on the subject, that the gains
wouldn't justify costs (in complexity of implementation for example).

(Despite this I have to admit that it's an idea that's never quite
lost its appeal for me.)

YMMV

// Ben