[plt-scheme] Parentheses and color

On Jul  3, Matthias Felleisen wrote:
> 
> On Jul 3, 2007, at 7:34 PM, Eli Barzilay wrote:
> 
> > One of the first rules of hacking (IMO) is "get to know your
> > keyboard".  Leave the mouse for end users...
> 
> Jean-Pierre is saying that a DrScheme user has to move the cursor to
> a parenthesis to find out which one is matching. So the "mouse" part
> is just a "lingo" (kind of like typo, but in Hebrew English :).

I got that -- my point is that navigating code is much more effective
using the keyboard.



> > But that's beside the point -- if you need colors to know where
> > the parens match, then something is wrong.  Having consistent
> > indentation means that you don't even need to look at the
> > parenthesis.  (I think that I could manage with all my parens
> > being invisible.)
> 
> Having said that, I second Eli's comment. I do use drscheme a lot.
> I have used it longer for everything for longer even than Robby,
> though I suspect he has now logged many more hours in it than I
> have.
> 
> I hardly ever need to look at parentheses or move the cursor to the
> right point. If I do, it's to re-close parens, but that is it.

I don't remember the last time I had an unbalanced file.  I *always*
use `M-('.  If I look over someone's shoulder and they'll type a
single "(" I'll bug them about it.

It gets to such levels that once in a while my finger will slip over
the `insert' key, which makes me type over closing parentheses -- and
when that happens, I *undo* everything up to the last known good
state, then continue from there.  This way I *never* look up counting
parens (or count).  (I even made my readline configuration do the
`M-(' thing.)  (Oh, and that applies to text too -- note that all
unbalanced parens in this text are quoted.)


> You need to let parens become second nature, even in Dr. -- Matthias

-- 
          ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x)))          Eli Barzilay:
                  http://www.barzilay.org/                 Maze is Life!