You’re welcome to laugh – this may be a daft idea. However…
I like writing in typewriter mode – i. e. enter new text midway down in the editor window. The blank, bottom half of the page seems to invite filling it.
But I don’t like editing in TR mode. Another recent post (in a tech support thread?) complained about the text ‘jumping’ instantaneously, and that’s the problem. I also find it disconcerting to put the insertion cursor between two words, touching a key and then having to look for the spot in another part of the screen.
Would it be feasible to ‘animate’ the page, so that the insertion location smoothly slides to centre screen instead of jumping, giving the eye a chance to follow the cursor position?
I don’t think it would be impossible, but it would be difficult. I’d have to hook in somewhere between the scroll view and text view to animate it, and it could be ugly. Or I’d have to scroll in increments… Either way has problems. The main point, though, is that typewriter mode isn’t really intended for editing - just for hammering out the text. At the point you come to edit your text, it’s probably best to turn it off. Of course, I know the problem with that is that editing and composing aren’t always clear cut and different, and that as you write, you may read back over text and edit it. But I’m not sure of a better solution, and the trouble with the scrolling slowly thing, although not a bad idea, is that the difficulty and time required to implement it would outweigh the potential benefits.
It’s not an outright “no” - just a “no” for the time being, for 2.0. Off in the future, when I have more time to look at smaller features, I’ll certainly reconsider it, as it would add a touch of smoothness to the feature.
All the best,
Keith
To restate what I use: Full-screen is typewriter mode and standard viewer is not. I write in full screen and edit in standard. It also helps (me anyway) keep a mental barrier between the two tasks.
I think animating would get annoying. It’s true, the sudden shift can be disorienting, but it isn’t too confusing where you went, as typewriter mode always puts you right in the middle. Animating the movement would look nice, but I think in actual usage it might be too much interface. You also have issues where the screen would need to scroll through 300 pages of text to get to the edit point, under some conditions.
