"Smart" paste and drag, etc. as found in word processing applications like Word and WordPerfect, are convenient for writing but maybe not for programming. Do plain text editors forego this feature, as noxious to programmers? Then why not make it an option? Is there a smart pasting, smart dragging, text editor on the market, or is there a good reason why there shouldn't be? Or am I exaggerating this feature's significance?

I think I am being dense here, but can you define smart pasting and smart dragging? Thanks.

Steve Z.

I think it was defined in the original Mac user interface guidelines. Essentially it's inserting (or deleting) space where it makes sense to.

For example, if you 2click "original" and then the delete key, the word is gone, but so is a space -- your intent is obviously to delete the word, so the space should go too.

Likewise, if you'd instead Cut, and then click somewhere and Paste, there should be a space on each side of the inserted word. That's what you'd want.

Stephen,

I thought it _was_ an option in EditPad, my preferred text editor, but I can not find it; I must be thinking of something else. EditPad does not have smart select, paste, or drag.

I use another text editor for the occasional RTF file, PolyEdit. I feel it's in between a text editor and a word processor, as it handles plain text files well. It has only smart select (i.e. auto-selecting the trailing space on a word double-click select); it does not have smart drag or paste. There is no option to control any select behavior in PolyEdit.

I think your observation is correct; if an editor is meant for writers, it probably has smart select. If it's meant for coders, it does not.

I'm curious to hear if any of the higher-end (read more expensive) editors have such an option.

Regards,
Wes

Stephen R. Diamond wrote:

"Smart" paste and drag, etc. as found in word processing applications like Word and
WordPerfect, are convenient for writing but maybe not for programming. Do plain text
editors forego this feature, as noxious to programmers? Then why not make it an
option? Is there a smart pasting, smart dragging, text editor on the market, or is
there a good reason why there shouldn't be? Or am I exaggerating this feature's
significance?

Wes Perdue wrote:

It has only smart select (i.e. auto-selecting the trailing space on a word
double-click select);

Argh, MS Word used to do that on the Mac, and it's HORRIBLE. It means you can't 2click a word and retype it, as the space is now gone. And you can't 2click a word and underline it, as the space is now underlined. IMO this was a case of Microsoft just not copying Apple right.

On the other hand, if select does not function "smartly," you cannot double-click on a word and delete it. Word 2003 for Windows smart selects the last space, but if you retype a double-clicked word, the spacing ends up right. Perhaps this process involves smart selection followed by smart deletion or some other form of braininess, but it does work right.