Results of Editor Survey

[Rudy Bazelmans]

In October, I conducted a survey to determine user preference towards
various characteristics of text editors.  The questionnaire was short
in order to encourage responses.  THANKS TO ALL WHO RESPONDED!

Rudy

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For each characteristic listed in the  questionnaire, the respondents
were asked to answer:  

    Y if they felt that the characteristic was useful
    N is they felt that the characteristic was not useful
    ? if they did not understand the question.

Responses   which  were   indecipherable  or   respondents  who  were
indecisive  are  included in  the totals  for the  ?   response.  All
percentages have been rounded to the nearest percentage.   The totals
from the 146 responses received are listed below:  

Which editors have you used?  Which editors do you like?

EDITOR			% WHO HAVE USED 	% WHO LIKE

Vi			80			50
Emacs (all types)	64			50
EDT			37			14
teco			37			8
ed			28			4
Wordstar		29			8


Question                                              Y(%) N(%) ?(%)

Full screen editing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    99    1    0
Multiple windows?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    81   10    9
Support for simultaneously editing multiple files?    89    9    2
Support for arrow keys?. . . . . . . . . . . . . .    63   33    4
Use of function keys?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    60   40    0
Use of the numeric keypad? . . . . . . . . . . . .    31   54   15
The ability to bind commands to keys of your choice?  85   15    0
Regular expression pattern matching? . . . . . . .    91    6    3
Cursor movement over words?. . . . . . . . . . . .    96    4    0
Cursor movement over sentences?. . . . . . . . . .    65   31    4
Cursor movement over paragraphs? . . . . . . . . .    61   34    4
Undo of any command? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    93    7    0
The ability to abort an edit?. . . . . . . . . . .    97    1    2
Automatic backup of the unedited file? . . . . . .    61   32    7
Automatic backup files during an edit? . . . . . .    61   32    7
A tutorial manual? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    72   27    1
A reference manual?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    97    3    0
A reference card?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    74   23    3
On-line documentation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    77   23    0
On-line command summary? . . . . . . . . . . . . .    82   16    2
Delimiter matching support for programming?. . . .    76   17    7
Automatic indentation of control structures? . . .    63   29    8
Syntax directed editing? . . . . . . . . . . . . .    34   32   34
Built-in extension language? . . . . . . . . . . .    55   19   26
Macro support? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    88   10    2
Automatic initialization of the editor at startup?    82    1   17

Do you prefer modeless editors over modal editors?    43   27   30

Any other features (Please list them)
  There were over 50 pages of additional comments from the respondents.
  Due to space constraints, the comments have not been reproduced here.

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Rudy Bazelmans - Wang Institute, (617) 967-2609
[apollo, bbncca, cadmus, decvax, harvard, linus, masscomp]!wanginst!bazelmans