On the design of text editors

TL;DR

This paper investigates the implicit design choices in text editors, exploring whether they stem from ignorance or habit, and illustrates possible alternatives without advocating for a specific one.

Contribution

It characterizes implicit design choices in text editors and explores alternative options without prescribing a particular design.

Findings

Implicit choices often stem from developer habits

Alternatives to common design choices are identified

Understanding these choices can inform future editor design

Abstract

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. The goal of this article is to characterize these implicit choices and to illustrate what are some alternatives without prescribing one or the other.