[Tuglist] Re: front-end to latex

[David Kastrup]

"Asokan  K" <asokank@rediffmail.com> writes:

> I am a vim user and for tex I keep a few scripts to make life easier.
> My fingers are so used to vim. But I found 'kile' usefull because
>   it was very intuitive, saves a lot of typing and allows for
> easier switching between files, navigation to different structural
> parts of files easier.  Who will remember the names of all these 400
> symbols, even though all these names are very descriptive ?; I forget
> them very often, may be it is a personal problem.

> I don't think writting lengthy commands in the echo area or pressing
> a hunderd keys for something that could be done by a single click of
> mouse, doesn't make anybody wiser.

Repeatedly having to hunt through menus for this single mouse click
does not make anybody wiser, either.  The best user interfaces are
those that let you use this single mouse click, but at the same time
remind you how you could do it with a few keypresses.

For Emacs, the package x-symbol offers this.  Symbols in your text
buffer look "as they are" (more or less), and you can select them
from menus by name, or a special large menu called "the grid" by
appearance.  In either case, x-symbol informs you of keyboard
shortcuts and the symbol's proper name.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum
Email: David.Kastrup@t-online.de