A user-friendly editor for structurally represented computer programs is disclosed. The present editor combines advantages of text editors and structure editors by transforming, as the user types, the event stream stream entered by the user into a token stream, where the tokens of the token stream constitute the words of the program being entered. Each of the tokens is classified by the editor as one of group of extended lexemes defined by the language in which the program being edited is written. These extended lexemes are defined similar to lexemes that might be used in a batch lexer, but are more numerous as the present editor must account for the incomplete and ill-formed lexemes that arise as the user types the program. Based on information in the token stream, the editor prettyprints the program as the user types. The editor also allows the user to edit the program from the prettyprinted display as if the program were internally represented as text. The present editor also allows the user to periodically request a syntactical analysis of the program, wherein the structure of the program is represented in a syntax tree that references the token stream.

System and method for textual editing of structurally-represented computer programs with on-the-fly typographical display

An editor for structurally represented computer programs transforms user-entered text on-the-fly into a stream of tokens that constitute words of the program under edit. Each token is classified as one of group of extended lexemes, and based upon token stream information the editor prettyprint displays the program as the user types. Prettyprinting involves typesetting each token in a visually distinct manner and displaying a varying amount of visual inter-token whitespace between the tokens, based upon token lexical type. The program may be user-edited from the prettyprinted display as though the program were internally represented as text. Cursor position and display appearance depend on the lexical types of tokens adjacent the cursor. To improve aesthetics of the prettyprinted display, a user may insert one or more alignment markers into lines of associated text. The presence of such marker(s) forces horizontal alignment between associated text lines containing such markers. The presence, number, and occurrence of such markers in associated lines of text is noted, and the pixel distance from a boundary edge to the first occurring marker in each line is calculated. The maximum such distance determines relative position of the first alignment marker. Pixel units are added to the whitespace gap preceding the first marker in the other associated lines to force such markers into alignment with the marker whose position represented the maximum distance. This process is then repeated for second alignment markers in each line, third alignment markers, and so on.

System and method for horizontal alignment of tokens in a structural representation program editor

A user-friendly editor for structurally represented computer programs is disclosed. The present editor combines advantages of text editors and structure editors by transforming, as the user types, the text stream entered by the user into a token stream, where the tokens of the token stream constitute the words of the program being entered. Each of the tokens is classified by the editor as one of group of extended lexemes defined by the language in which the program being edited is written. These extended lexemes are defined similarly to lexemes that might be used in a batch lexer, but are more numerous as the present editor must account for the incomplete and ill-formed lexemes that arise as the user types the program. Based on information in the token stream, the editor prettyprints the program as the user types. This prettyprinting step involves typesetting each of the tokens in a visually distinct manner and displaying a varying amount of visual whitespace between the tokens, each of these operations being based on the lexical types of the tokens. The editor also allows the user to edit the program from the prettyprinted display as if the program were internally represented as text via a cursor whose position and appearance depends on the lexical types of tokens adjacent to the cursor. The present editor also allows the user to periodically request a syntactical analysis of the program, wherein the structure of the program is represented in a syntax tree that references the token stream.

System and method for inter-token whitespace representation and textual editing behavior in a program editor

A user-friendly text editor for structurally represented computer programs is disclosed. The present editor combines advantages of text editors and structure editors by transforming, as the user types, the text stream entered by the user into a token stream, where the tokens of the token stream constitute the words of the program being entered. Each of the tokens is classified by the editor as one of a group of extended lexemes defined by the language in which the program being edited is written. These extended lexemes are defined similar to lexemes that might be used in a batch lexer, but are more numerous as the present editor must account for the incomplete and ill-formed lexemes that arise as the user types the program. Before performing lexical analysis, the present editor separates program statements from program comments. The editor then stores the text of the comments along with comment positioning information that allows the original position of the comments as entered by the user to be recreated for printing or display purposes. Based on the token stream and the separately represented comments, the editor prettyprints the program and comments as the user types. The editor also allows the user to edit the program from the prettyprinted display as if the program were internally represented as text. The present editor also allows the user to periodically request a syntactical analysis of the program, wherein the structure of the program is represented in a syntax tree that references the token stream.

Token-based computer program editor with program comment management

A system and method are disclosed that enable a batch lexer to be used to incrementally update a token stream representation of a computer program maintained in an editor as the computer program is being edited. A keystroke executive interprets editing inputs and dispatches editing events to a lexical analyzer. The lexical analyzer converts a range of the tokens likely to be affected to an equivalent old textual stream that preserves whitespace implied by but not represented within the token stream. A new text stream is generated from the old text stream by carrying out the current editing event. I.e., insertion of text is handled by the insertion of the relevant text into the old text stream (now the new stream) and deletion of a character is handled by deleting the appropriate character from the old text stream. The batch lexer is then invoked on the new text stream and as a result returns a new token stream. The fewest possible tokens from the new token stream that reflect the entire impact of the current editing event are returned to the keystroke executive along with an updated editing point within the new token stream as the suggested token stream update. The keystroke executive is free to ignore or accept the suggested update. The new token stream and the new text stream can be generated lazily, respectively one token and one character at a time.

Per-keystroke incremental lexing using a conventional batch lexer

It has been recognised that cursor movements on a textual representation of a program present some problems when the movements are based on an underlying abstract syntax tree in a programming system. Approaches taken in many systems are to use structured or textual cursor movements, although both these approaches have some drawbacks. This paper presents a new approach, called semi-structured movements, based on the idea of cursor movement paths, or streams, that the cursor can follow in a program. The key benefits of this approach are that it eliminates the ‘treeness’ of structured movements and the flatness of textual movements, while providing an inherent support for program editing and browsing. Semi-structured cursor movements have been successfully implemented in the MUPE-2 programming environment, and this paper gives several scenarios in order to illustrate example cursor movements.

Semi-structured cursor movements in MUPE-2

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Semi-structured cursor movements in MUPE-2