Medley Interlisp structure editing: first impressions
Although I used several Lisp systems over a couple of decades, I never tried structure editing.
The chance finally came when I encountered Medley Interlisp, the Lisp system that pioneered structure editing. In particular I use SEdit which is the most advanced and user-friendly Interlisp structure editor.
I really like structure editing. It feels easier than I expected, natural, and productive. Plus it's a lot of fun.
The Medley Interlisp project is rehosting and modernizing the system to run on contemporary operating systems and computers but there are still a few rough edges, such as missing or broken keystrokes. Most notably the arrow keys don't work. I assumed this would severely limit coding with SEdit, but it turns out the tool can still be used productively and with very little friction.
Despite the issue, mouse operation in SEdit may be faster than the equivalent keystrokes of traditional text editors.
For example, once the cursor is at the destination, selecting and moving a complex list structure can be done with a single mouse click while holding down the Shift and Ctrl keys. Text editors typically require delimiting the code block to move, which takes a few keystrokes to go to and mark the end points, and executing the move command with an additional keystroke or more.
Where structure editing shines is with rearranging code. The structure-aware commands to select expressions and lists make it fast to copy, move, adjust the nesting level of, or delete large code blocks with a few mouse clicks or keystrokes.
Text editors allow inserting characters almost anywhere, while SEdit enforces the Lisp syntax and lets me type code only where allowed. But thinking in terms of structures instead of character sequences is less constraining that I thought. I enter Lisp expressions in a fill-in-the-blanks kind of way, in which the blanks are the spots where the syntax allows something. Sometimes it helps to type the code in a top-down way, from the outer list structures to the inner ones.
After relatively little practice with SEdit the awareness of structure editing is fading away, thus letting me focus on the code. It's now second nature and I no longer pay attention to how to perform editing tasks, as my muscle and action memory kicks in.
I had a similar early experience with Lisp's parentheses. They “disappeared” very soon and never were a source of friction.
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