[Oberon] ETHO work flow tools.

[eas lab]

> As the complexity of the project expands the number of textFrames opened
> increases and it's inevitable that a critical one will be Grown to
> cover others.  Once that is done, choas will set in, since inconsistent
> copies of 'papers under the pile' will be created.

Bob Walkden writes:-
|are you sure about this? Texts operate on the MVC principle, so if you have
|multiple views open on the same model then any change to the model should be
|broadcast to the views which should respond by refreshing themselves from
|the model.

Did I totally fail to explain to ANYBODY here? And what about the wily example?
Actually I've re-realised that the menu-of-already-open-TextFrames solution is
flawed, if the menu allows the RE-loading of an existing/CHANGED TextFrame.
This 2-conflicting-centers-of-power problem didn't exist in TP, which lacked
the massive advantage of having multiple TextFrames open on the same display.

The menu could still have value [as menus DO] of reminding the user, and
removing the need to TYPE in [messages to the little man in the box];
but like wily, the actual re-loading must be controlled by what's already
in the display heirarchy.

Years ago, I raised the possibility of a utility to descend the display tree,
and pop-up the now-needed, but hidden frame -- but got no response.

The other feature which I'm trying to copy from wily is the ability to
<capture> words/tokens from the CURSOR position --  not the caret.

MidMouse on a M.P does this, and more importantly, AFAIR, earlier versions
enabled the <Ctrl> key to be used, in the case of a 2-button mouse; but
I haven't yet been able to find the existing code.

The ability to roam the display with the right-hand on the mouse, and
pick-off different <functions> from the keyboard, raises interesting
possiblities. OTOH, wily's extra dimension of a live-cursor [ie. not a caret,
which needs a LeftMouse confirmation] is potentially dangerous,
since if the cursor 'wanders' you may shoot where you don't intend to.
I propose a safety-catch mode.

So yes, the basic mouse-chording is very powerful, but eg. the existing
[but I suspect seldom used] EditKeys.* macros means you can take ever
greater steps, without being restricted to teletype mode. I suspect
other imaginative extentions are possible to improve work-flow productivety.