Re: Modes

[Harry Binswanger hb@xxxxxxxx]

Peter Evans wrote:
>>Is there some advantage to having to DeFine the damn thing? Doing that
>>requires at least one extra keystroke (the one for XD--cancel define).
>
>Well, at a very banal level, if I've typed any phrase longer than "sub
>rosa" and then decide it would benefit from italics, it's quicker to mark
>it as a block, italicize it, and then unmark it than it is either to retype
>it with italics or to go back and add MD commands at the command line.

But quicker still is to go to where you'd begin your mark and type the
keystroke (e.g., ctrl-U) for bc,md ul,xc. Or, in Xy4, bx,md ul,q2.
>Secondly, defining is necessary in an XPL program that reformats what I've
>already written.
I don't see why. If the pgm knows the cursor positions to begin and end the
mode in, then it knows where to insert  and . That seems cleaner.

Nobody mentioned one "advantage" of using df: when adding a special mode
after having entered text, you don't have to see your whole display change
from the point of insertion of, say,  to the bottom of your screen,
until you find the place to insert the  and insert it. But after 10
years of XyWriting, I've become inured to this.

Regards,

Harry Binswanger
hb@xxxxxxxx