Newsgroups: comp.sys.transputer
From: ifunltd@xs1.xs4all.nl (ifunltd)
Subject: Re: Newbie question: What is a "folding editor"?
Organization: XS4ALL, networking for the masses
Date: 5 Nov 1994 17:06:38 GMT
Message-ID: <39ge2u$sel@news.xs4all.nl>

Steve DuChene (s0017210@unix1.cc.ysu.edu) wrote:
: 	This may seem like a dumb question to those of you who are 
: 	more familiar with this but I don't see any reference to this
: 	information in any of the documentation or FAQ's we have. So
: 	what is a folding editor and what advantages do they offer?

Folding editors can 'fold' the 'paper' on which you have written your
source code. Of course the 'paper' is the computer screen, and folding
it may be a bit more problematic than folding a piece of paper. What
happens is that a piece of text is made invisible (represented in one
single line), allowing you to keep a good overview over the program,
without needing to put every few lines of code in a subroutine.

The trick in a folding editor is, that it needs to keep track of which
parts of the source code should be visible and which are folded, but
since the source code needs to be compilable, the format indications
need to be OK with comment rules. Some folding editors allow you to set
the language you are working in, so that they use the correct codes to
make the format indications appear inside comments in that programming
language.

Folding is not just good for programmers: more and more word processors
are using the folding concept, by providing an "Outline" view for the
text you are writing. You start with a chapter header, embed section
headers in the text, and place text within folded pieces of text, so
that you can fold up parts of the text and keep track of the structure
of your story. Very convenient, and a great help to keep people from
making unstructured texts, regardless of whether you are writing for a
machinated or a human compiler. If you want to look at the folding concept
in a word processor, look for ClarisWorks on the Macintosh or Microsoft
Word (both Mac and non-Mac windows).

Warning: some folding editors have a problematic user interface.

: | 	Friends don't let friends do DOS

What is DOS ?!

Good luck

Jang Graat
... lots of info on this line (folded)


