diff options
Diffstat (limited to '2021/talks/design.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | 2021/talks/design.md | 115 |
1 files changed, 115 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/2021/talks/design.md b/2021/talks/design.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..84a89de9 --- /dev/null +++ b/2021/talks/design.md @@ -0,0 +1,115 @@ +[[!meta title="On the design of text editors"]] +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2021 Nicolas P. Rougier"]] +[[!inline pages="internal(2021/info/design-nav)" raw="yes"]] + +<!-- You can manually edit this file to update the abstract, add links, etc. ---> + + +# On the design of text editors +Nicolas P. Rougier + + + +[[!inline pages="internal(2021/info/design-schedule)" raw="yes"]] + +Text editors are written by and for developers. They come +with a large set of default and implicit choices in terms of layout, +typography, colorization and interaction that hardly change from one +editor to the other. It is not clear if these implicit choices derive +from the ignorance of alternatives or if they derive from developers' +habits, reproducing what they are used to. Durint this talk, I will +characterize these implicit choices and illustrate what are some +alternatives using GNU Emacs. + +# Outline + +1. Review of a "modern" code editor (5mn) +2. Introduction of an alternative using Emacs (5mn) + +# Links from the slides: + +* [Elegant Emacs](https://github.com/rougier/elegant-emacs) (https://github.com/rougier/elegant-emacs) +* [On the Design of Text Editors](https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.06030) (https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.06030) +* [N Λ N O Emacs](https://github.com/rougier/nano-emacs) (https://github.com/rougier/nano-emacs) +* [svg-lib (ELPA)](https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/svg-lib.html) (https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/svg-lib.html) +* [nano-theme (ELPA)](https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/nano-theme.html) (https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/nano-theme.html) +* [nano-modeline (ELPA)](https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/nano-modeline.html) (https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/nano-modeline.html) +* [nano-agenda (ELPA)](https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/nano-agenda.html) (https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/nano-agenda.html) + +# Discussion + +- Q1: Do you have any plans for somewhat scientific testing of colors, + layout, etc? + - A: There are already some studies on the usefulness of + colorization but they're not consistent. I would love to make a + study with some students but it's a bit beyond my expertise. +- Q2: I have really enjoyed looking at the development of NANO emacs. + The only thing I slightly disagree with are the colours: on my + system some of them are extremely low-contrast and faded. Otherwise + the design is fantastic! Do you have any comments on the colour + scheme? + - A: I think you're right and I might need to revise the color + scheme, taking inspiration (or copying) some of the colors from + modus themes since Prot designed proper colors backed by + scientific theory. +- Q3: Are your examples hand-selected from design-perspective or does + "everything" look good automatically with your setup? + - A: Screenshots I've shown are available on GitHub and you + should obtain the same if you install them. Some parts come from + my personal configuration (org-agenda and mu4e mostly) but I can + post the code if you're interested. +- Q4: Should we use monocromatic colour schemes over full-coloured + ones? + - A: I'm not sure I can answer this question, I would need to + search if there are any recommendation on that matter. +- Q5: Are there ways that emacs could be improved to make these kinds + of usability experiments easier and more accessible to users? For + example making it easier to switch between such experiments? + - A: <https://github.com/plexus/chemacs> is a perfect answer. It + allows you to switch from one configuration to another without + messing up your own. +- Q6: Would it be possible to integrate nano emacs design to default + emacs design? What would the pushback be for integrating "better" + UI changes? + - A: I think Emacs would benefit from better defaults and I would + vote for modus themes to be the new default theme. Next would be + to package Emacs with a decent font (e.g. Julia Mono, Iosevka, + Inconsolata, Victor Mono) that would really help changing the + first impression of new users. Last would be to tweak a the + mode-line a bit. +- Q7:Spellchecking now highlights the whole word, to me this is a bit + too emphasized. Are there plans to make these less intrusive; i.e. + underline or similar? (And no, no bright red crinkles ;) + - A: Good point, can you open an issuer on GitHub? + +- What's this theme? +- i'll be sharing this with my friends that praise on vscode +- Wow, incredible analysis of that editor. +- looks beautiful +- how much of that is just bigger margins and roboto though? +- I love nano Emacs. I use it too +- i wonder if I can steal the splash screen and header line +- I really think that the default emacs theme could use this kind of effort and scrutiny in order to improve it +- A4: good idea, but few people have A4 *screens*... +- holy crap it looks so good +- yet again, though, the contrast is awful! black and white, please, not light grey and not-quite-so-light grey. it's almost unreadable, IMHO +- How hard would it be to integrate nano emacs changes with the default emacs? Like, would there be a lot of pushback? + - of course! there was massive pushbac over using curly quotes, for goodness' sake +- Are you aware of the modus-themes and what are your thoughts after contrast and accessibility? + - yeah, i just love modus themes by Prot because i'm colorblind and the fact that it has a strict contrast ratio is really really helpful, but even on modus themes i have to set success, error and warning to some really strong colors like pure red, green and blue + - I'm *not* colourblind and having high contrast is still good! there's a reason books are black on white, not grey on grey. or at least the background and body-text foreground must be highly distinct + - protesilaos: there are also options for deuteranopia, in case you need them (will need to refactor them for simplicity's sake) +- What Nicolas Rougier does is most welcome. Emacs can benefit a lot from such work. +- hmmm maybe Emacs needs to be able to handle WOFF! sounds like a job for fontconfig, I might look at it some day +- Nano Emacs + modus-themes would be a perfect combination, as it were. + +- From [YouTube](www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OTe26RZH9A&feature=em-comments): Great efforts & I'm rooting for you! but you might consider rebranding, because of the GNU nano text editor (22 years of recognition) + +# Contact information +* Contact [nicolas.rougier@inria.fr](mailto:nicolas.rougier@inria.fr) +* Follow my work at [github.com/rougier](https://github.com/rougier) +* Support my work at [github.com/sponsors/rougier](https://github.com/sponsors/rougier) or [en.liberapay.com/rougier/](https://en.liberapay.com/rougier/) + +[[!inline pages="internal(2021/captions/design)" raw="yes"]] + +[[!inline pages="internal(2021/info/design-nav)" raw="yes"]] |