Layman's suggestion to make txt editing on the flat screens faster than computers

Shkrabatz

Shkrabatz

Novice
As per my introduction, I have the programming talents of a slug. My only strength is that I know a lot about txt editing. And it is my view that the direction txt editing has taken for phablets and tablets is WRONG.

For example, consider what it takes to cancel a single word on iOS and Android:

4 taps: tap-tap on screen to select word, backspace to delete, and then another backspace to "micro-correct" the double space.

Or consider how "clunky" it is for keen eye to command pudgy finger to slide mini-handle over teensy text until the glow is just right and one may hit BACKspace for a FOREward deletion.

When the flat screens came out I was aghast... I'm a translator of movie scripts.

I need editing power, not for quick and dirty little interventions likeTweets and Whatsapps, but for major editing jobs.

So I invented my own "factory floor" method, which I call: CONNECTIVE EDITING

I will lay it out in the next couple of posts.
 
EDITING is connective in its blind mechanics.

William Shakespeare highlights text and then hits Backspace
Then a monkey who's been sipping Whiskey all day does the same thing.

What happens in both cases?

In both cases the value just beyond the extreme end of the highlighting (no matter what it is) gets connected to the cursor position.

EVERY SINGLE TIME

Therefore we may say that highlighting to delete is connective in its blind mechanics, to the point that it doesn't matter whether the operator is. Shakespeare or a drunken monkey.

But what is the difference between Shakespeare's act and the monkey's?

Shakespeare ends the highlighting where he does precisely because he WANTS TO CONNECT to the value (the sense) just beyond the extreme end of the highlighting.

So here we see that...

Editing is connective in its pondered purpose...

When we highlight to delete we END the highlighting where we do PRECISELY because we want the value (the sense of what there is) just beyond the highlighting.

We want to connect it to the cursor position.

And presently our only way of connecting to those desired values is by garbage disposal.

Garbage disposal?

Yes... We highlight the "bad stuff" from the very beginning and we stretch the highlighting to the very "tippy-tippy" end of of the bad stuff and then - ZAP! - we cast the garbage into oblivion!

It doesn't feel connective, but it is...

Editing is connective even in the "geography" of any text.

Eh?

I know, sounds crazy, but...

Go to your favorite word processor and, switching on "view optionally visible non-printing characters" load any text and zoom in.

Before and after every paragraph there is a pilcrow, a paragraph sign, this: ¶

Before and after most words there is a spacebar space...

Before and After...

Okay... let's see what happens if we break out of the Microsoft mold and instead of connecting by garbage disposal, that is by highlighting the full extent of the garbage, up to and **EXCLUDING** the value we want, we instead connect directly to that value.

Kindly allow me two action buttons and call them [§] and [=]

Have the first one, [§], obey the following command:

Check the value immediately to the left of the cursor, hop back in place, and then cancel to the right up to and including that same value, case insensitive.

With this I can

1. Kill word for word, at a single tap (also machine gun style). I do this by connecting the space before a word with the space after it.

2. Paragraph per paragraph at a single tap (also machine gun style). I do this connecting the pilcrow before a paragraph to the pilcrow after.

3. From anywhere inside a paragraph to the end of the selfsame with two touches <ENTER> where I want to end the paragraph followed by [§]. By hitting <ENTER> I create the pilcrow link that allows [§] to kill paragraphs.

4. Cancel to the first instance of any whatsoever punctuation mark / symbol with never more than 2 touches (the mark/symbol in question followed by [§].

5. I can cancel consecutively. If for example I want to cancel to the end of the sentence, I tap in a period "." and then hit [§]... but then another immediate tap on [§] will cancel to the end of the next sentence.

6. I can deletively-connect to any word with "X" amount of taps.

All on one action button.

More to come... (gotta work)
 
For point six, (previous post) deletively connecting to words, it's generally more efficient to use the second button [=] which obeys the following command:

Check the TWO values immediately to the left of the cursor, hop back in place, and then cancel to the right up to and including those same TWO values, case insensitive.

Now this is embarrassing, because, what you'll see with the use of [§] and [=] to deletively connect to words, reeks very strongly of ancient Nokia / Samsung phone technology...

Okay, pretend that all the words in your text are names (BTW: in English the words "noun" and "name" actually share their etymology)

Now consider the normal ambit of editing. Generally it is quite circumscribed. All the more so, if you consider the viewable screen real estate of a handheld.

The "AMBIT"

As you proceed from editing operation to editing operation, the ambit, the circumscribed range of words you are operating on changes.

Now imagine that each and every one of those single ambits is momentarily like the full list of your Nokia telephone contacts.

For example if the sentence you are working on has 25 words, then in that moment your old Nokia phone has 25 contacts. Then in the next editing ambit it might have only 5 names and the one after that 100.

So words are like names on your old Nokia, except now, when you connect to a name, you cancel everything up to that word/name.

Here, watch... it's primitive as hell, but surprisingly efficacious!

You compose the following paragraph:

The man in charge was a tall and proud-looking figure, extremely elegant in his handmade suit... none other than the future president of the United States, George Washington.

And your editor snarls: "Never mind the nonsense, just give me the dirt! The man in charge was... ??!!"

Washington!

Starts with a "W"

You call Washington on your old Nokia by tapping in "W" and since you don't have a lot of names/words in that particular editing ambit / (contact list) - only 22 - Washington comes fast. All the more so because "W" in English is not that common.

The man in charge was W[§]a tall and proud-looking figure, extremely elegant in his handmade suit... none other than the future president of the United States, George Washington.

Whoa! - Lucky shot! - in this case, you erased 22 words with a "tap-BAM!"

A "W" from the keyboard as a deletive link and then [§] the first action button.

(iA Writer, the best seller in the iOS sphere, would've required 28 taps... and what's hilarious is that to begin highlighting iA Writer requires you to tap SHIFT twice (also CapsLock)

That means that the iOS best-seller hasn't even gotten started and I have completed the task.

In Android (TextMaker, Jota, Jotterpad, etc.) the most common way would've been to drag highlighting.

Tap-tap on "The"
Grab mini-handle
Drag handle to cover full extent of garbage
Backspace

In practice, one often finds one's finger beyond reach... and so one resorts to repositioning and repeated taps on Backspace.

Oh no no no! wait a minute here!!!!... UNDO!!

The man in charge was George Washington...

Have [§] deliver George!

How many taps to reach George? I don't know... (who's counting G's?) all I know is that hitting [§] after tapping in a "G" will inescapably deliver George to me.

[§] is absolutely simple and faithful! [§] will bring EVERY "G" or "g" to me.

Not much of a learning curve, is there? The concept is indeed quite similar to calling contacts on a cell phone.

The man in charge was G[§][§][§][§]a tall and proud-looking figure, extremely elegant in his handmade suit... none other than the future president of the United States, George Washington.

In this case, the "effort" count turns out to be:

The insertion of a "G" from the keyboard
4 taps on [§].
For a total of 5 finger exertions.

How long did it take [§]?
Half a second? With my finger "monkey-tapping" on the same button, the process was easy and lazy... and with each tap, I saw "George" come bounding to the cursor position where I wanted it.

Hey George! George!!!

ENTER BOOSTER MODE ​

The Booster Button [=] reads TWO characters to the left of the cursor position and then cancels to the right up to and including those same two values, case insensitive.

Improving word connection is why [=] was invented to sit alongside [§].

Again, not much of a learning curve. It's common knowledge that retrieving a telephone contact can be faster with two letters!

Watch what it takes to connect to "George" with [=].

The man in charge was Ge[=]a tall and proud-looking figure, extremely elegant in his handmade suit... none other than the future president of the United States, George Washington.

This time only 3 finger exertions.

First a "G" then an "e" and then [=]

With sound effects it would be:

"Tah-tah-BAM!"

No, wait a minute!

There’s no need to write "Ge" to reach "George"... just tap in a "G" and booster mode will deliver only space-G or space-g to the cursor, that is to say, only those words that start with a "G" or a "g", thus vastly improving the connective power.

The man in charge was G[=]a tall and proud-looking figure, extremely elegant in his handmade suit... none other than the future president of the United States, George Washington.

G[=]
2 taps
The man in charge was "Tah-BAM!"

Wouldn't that power be nice on a handheld?!...

So, recapitulating:

Editing is connectibe in its blind mechanics, pondered purpose, geography and...

RE-CONNECTIVE in its normal practice

Eh?

Consider this piece of bad prose:

It was a gloriously luminous day.

Re-reading his output, the novelist reaches that short stretch and curls his nose.

"Gloriously luminous?" Bleah! What's wrong with "sunny"?

So he taps in the improvement:
It was a sunny gloriously luminous day.

Now obviously, "gloriously luminous" has to go - that's not in question. The real question is: what's in the writer's head?

Is he keen on canceling "gloriously luminous" because he doesn't like those words?

You might think so, but the answer is: No, not at all! To him that's ancient history.

He settled that matter the second he tapped in "sunny".

At this point all he really wants to do is re-connect to his good-to-go word, the word he's happy with, which in this case is obviously "day".

It was a sunny.... what?

It was a sunny "d" for "day".

It was a sunny d[§]gloriously luminous day.

Connective editing is actually closer to how busy editors think! They change and reconnect, change and reconnect.

Except presently they are reconnecting by garbage disposal and so the connectivity of the whole exercise isn't fully appreciated.
 
Editing examples using [§] and [=]

Task 1: cancel the first part of the paragraph below and leave the quote with the quotation marks.

In the words of the great Hungarian scientist Janos von Neumann: "If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is."

"[§]In the words of the great Hungarian scientist Janos von Neumann: "If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is."

With connective editing 2 taps, one on the keyboard to proactively insert the link, in this case a quotation mark (") and the other on the [§] button.

Is there a snappier method out there? I haven't seen it.

============================================================
Task 2 (paragraph from Alice in Wonderland)

The hole went straight on for some way and then turned down with a sharp bend, so sharp that Alice had no time to think to stop till she found herself falling in what seemed a deep well.

Effecting the necessary deletions, edit the Alice paragraph down to the above words in blue:

Alice found herself falling in a well.

Al[=]The hole went straight on for some way and then turned down with a sharp bend, so sharp that Alice had no time to think to stop till she found herself falling in what seemed a deep well.


2 taps on the keyboard to insert "Al" (the initials of "Alice") at the top of the paragraph
1 tap on [=] to delete-connect to "Alice".

Tap to reposition cursor (not counted)

1 tap on the keyboard to insert "f" for "found"
1 tap on [§] to delete-connect to "found"

Alice f[§]had no time to think to stop till she found herself falling in what seemed a deep well.


Tap to reposition cursor (not counted)
2 consecutive taps on [§] to cancel "what" and "seemed"
tap to reposition cursor (not counted)
One tap on [§] to delete "deep"

TASK completed: 8 finger exertions (excluding cursor placement)

iA Writer 43 exertions (excluding cursor placement)
TM android finger-painting? Hard to count...
But for speed, immediacy and precsion you're not going to beat Connective Editing.

================================================
Task 3

Chop down the Neumann paragraph... to only: mathematics is simple

m[§][§]In the words of the great Hungarian scientist Janos von Neumann: "If people do not believe that mathematics is simple<ENTER>[§], it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is."


5 "finger exertions"
"m" from the keyboard, two consecutive taps on [§] to connect to the "m" of mathematics. Then after the word simple. <ENTER> from the keybaord immediately followed by [§].
(With connective editing, to cancel from anywhere in a paragraph to the end of the same paragraph, only requires two taps)

=============================================

Thank you for reading... and sorry for the long posts... but it's a new way of editing, and as you can see it out-performs anything that's out there.

So far I have achieved 1 partial implementation from a reputable app maker in iOS. I won't tell you which here in public for fear of breaking the rules.
I am probably already skating on thin ice for "spamming"...

Best regards from Rome
 
Thank you for the like smASH.

This is most likely language specific... but were I to talk to a coder, I would ask for a third button on the over-the-keyboard row of my Connective Editor.

THE [|] BUTTON​

The [|] button simply brings the cursor to the end of a word. This is very useful when one uses word connection instead of highlight-deletion. Both [§] and [=] leave the cursor tucked inside the connected word.

[§] one space, [=] either one or two spaces.

Such a cursor position is almost always fruitless and needs to be readily escaped.

I like the end of words better than the head of words because the "butt" is where all the action is…

CONSIDER

1. Regular plurals (book - bookS / sandwich - sandwichES

2. Possessives (genitive) the book of Mary - Mary'S book.

3. Contractions - can'T / might'VE

4. Past tense changes - walk / walkED

5. Dates and numbers - 21ST of July / the sixteenTH ice cream.

6. Adverbs - swift / swiftLY

7. Gerunds - jump / jumpING

8. And the most important item on the list… Punctuation marks!!!!
 
BEATIFIC VISION​

(if I were the Sultan of Silicon Valley and not
just a poor translator demanding better software)​

In my life I've translated hundreds of scripts, treatments and synopses in less than ideal working conditions, using out-of-my-pocket, instant-on devices, armed with [§] and [=] as macros.

For productive editing, all the devices were clunky, but paradoxically, NONE quite as unwieldy as the modern flat screens!

That's because scribes are no longer the privileged end-users. Writing is not what the flatscreens do, but what they can also sorta do. And that-s not gonna change. But there could be a hardware synergy that at least in my feverish imagination could change that.

Retro-Tapping to the rescue!​

With Connective Editing, there'd be a way to make editing on phablets and tablets as ergonomic as playing a musical instrument.

Hold your phablet in landscape mode! The front is Tokyo, New York, Paris, Mumbai, Seoul... and the back? Except for the camera lens, it's Outer Mongolia, the Sahara Desert, Antarctica.

To bring editing on flat screens to the next level, that empty real estate - the battery cover - needs to be civilized with two sensors, one on the left and one on the right.

Two sensitized areas allowing for six different commands.

Right-tap
Right-tap-tap
Left-tap
Left-tap-tap
Both-tap
Both-tap-tap

Two of the six could be dedicated to [§] and [=] and the others to highlighting, copy/cut pasting, and info retrieval.

Now always holding your phablet in landscape mode, notice your two middle fingers UNDERNEATH... powerful, accurate, but until now UNEMPLOYED!

With Connective Editing and Retro-Tapping, the top part, screen and virtual keyboard, would be dedicated to creative writing and the bottom part, (the sensitized battery cover) to creative editing.

And the experience would be like playing a musical instrument!

At long last writer-editors (the "scribes") would have devices capable of outperforming computers while walking, slouching, lying in bed, riding on the flatbed of a pick-up truck in Barranquilla.

I call it a beatific vision because in the grand scheme of things, scribes are no longer important. My only hope is that some gamesters fall in love with the idea of Retro-Tapping. Now that's a market big enough to get the OEMs interested! Then, when/if the gamesters get retro-tapping... hallelujah, so might the scribes!
 
Hello again, this will probably be my last post here at this great forum.
I can hear a collective sigh of relief!

But I would be remiss if I failed to copy paste the two macros that can allow one to try [§] and [=] on MS Word.

As you will soon see they are "coded" in WordBasic and not the much more modern object oriented Visual Basic.

I post them because out of the goodness of Bill Gate's heart they still work... The modern versions of Word still understand the Macros of the nineties!

They work especially well on Word for Windows 2003. The later versions don't properly connect between paragraphs. But I use them every day because the ambit of most editing is generally rather contained.

So, if you know how, add them as macros and assign them to key combinations. And then get the hang of them...

I would start with the examples shown on this thread.

https://techenclave.com/community/t...ns-faster-than-computers.184773/#post-2128825

[§]

Public Sub MAIN()
Dim WORD$
WordBasic.CharLeft 1, 1
WORD$ = WordBasic.[Selection$]()
WordBasic.CharRight 1
WordBasic.ExtendSelection
WordBasic.WW2_EditFind Find:=WORD$, WholeWord:=0, MatchCase:=0, Direction:=1 _
, Format:=0
WordBasic.EditCut
End Sub

[=]

Public Sub MAIN()
Dim WORD$
WordBasic.CharLeft 2, 2
WORD$ = WordBasic.[Selection$]()
WordBasic.CharRight 1
WordBasic.ExtendSelection
WordBasic.WW2_EditFind Find:=WORD$, WholeWord:=0, MatchCase:=0, Direction:=1 _
, Format:=0
WordBasic.EditCut
End Sub


The instructions are really simple, so I suggest you smart kids who know how to code to fix up something more elegant.

And if you really really want blessings coming your way from Italy... Make [§] and [=] work on LibreOffice and send me a message.

I tried but as I said, coding's for the next life!
Arrivederci!!
 
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