At 14:04 -0700 8/19/11, Watts Martin wrote: >I'm not clear from Doug McNutt's earlier message whether what BBEdit was >"useless" for was the "insert a single hard tab between columns" described >above, which indeed most text editors would be lousy at but most word >processors would not, or what he needs to do is to set space-filled columnar >data in the way of an old punch card, i.e.: > >[-field-][---------field---------][---field---] >text more text starting here other text >foobar walla walla bing bang 23skidoo > >...which BBEdit could do, just not as conveniently as Emacs
The problem is that I use other software and hardware - think numerically controlled lathe and circuit board creation. They expect the tab characters with one tab per column and they get very upset with markup language, <table> and the like. Gerber files, once you get there, are fine in BBEdit. Nisus 5.1 was really great. It kept all of the text in a data fork and all of the formatting in the resource fork. The text files were usable everywhere. No more. It's now a typical OS 10 word processor. The other option is Microsoft Excel which, to say the least, is more than I need but it does work with tab separated data both in and out. perl does a fine job of fixing bad files. The main use for a text editor is debugging when the whole idea is to look at the files produced elsewhere. It would be nice to use the same editor I use to work with perl and 8 bit assembly code. And the 026 card punch allowed you to put a punched card on a drum. When you poked the tab key the working card was advanced to the next hole in the drum card. Just like a typewriter. I'm currently looking at gedit which requires python that I'll have to learn but at least the source code is mine to play with. Right now it's just like BBEdit. And oh yes, your field example required that I look at the message in a constant width font. BBEdit doesn't require that but with Eudora it's just a mouse click. -- --> Give me liberty or give me Obamacare <-- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "BBEdit Talk" discussion group on Google Groups. To post to this group, send email to bbedit@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to bbedit+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at <http://groups.google.com/group/bbedit?hl=en> If you have a feature request or would like to report a problem, please email "supp...@barebones.com" rather than posting to the group. Follow @bbedit on Twitter: <http://www.twitter.com/bbedit>
