On the design of text editors · HackerPapers discussions

On the design of text editors — mentioned by skydhash

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 23:26:32 GMT

A more sensible text related to code presentation is Rougier's On the design of text editors. But I found I don't really need a lot of syntax highlighting. My preference is towards those separations: - Code vs comments - builtins vs other symbols - maybe strings. But I like to rely on whitespace (blank lines and indentations) more than colors these days. [0]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.06030

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On the design of text editors — HN submission

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 06:08:31 GMT

On the design of text editors (2020)

179 points; 86 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

On the design of text editors — mentioned by sph

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 05:27:02 GMT

Also on arXiv: "On the design of text editors" https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.06030

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On the design of text editors — HN submission

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 12:20:46 GMT

On the design of Text Editors

1 point; 0 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

On the design of text editors — mentioned by giraffe_lady

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 15:09:30 GMT

It's not adhd specific but https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.06030 After reading this I implemented a code theme based primarily around typographic variation like weight rather than color. It uses only two colors (black and deep purple) in two weights and one italic each. I have pretty severe adhd and it's hard to judge but after using it for a few months I think this is better for me. Previously I had been using solarized light for nearly a decade for probably similar reasons. Nano emacs was created by the author of that paper and its default themes are based on it, if you want to try it without…

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On the design of text editors — HN submission

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 22:49:50 GMT

On the Design of Text Editors

33 points; 1 discussion reply on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

On the design of text editors — mentioned by AlanYx

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 22:30:17 GMT

>I am trying to imagine what a page of code laid out by a professional designer would look like.... You'll probably love this paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.06030 Nicolas Rougier has also implemented a few of those ideas in a series of packages for Emacs called "NANO Emacs"; the actual implementation goes beyond what's discussed in the paper and is worth checking out.

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On the design of text editors — HN submission

Fri, 04 Jun 2021 15:05:23 GMT

On the Design of Text Editors

2 points; 0 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

On the design of text editors — HN submission

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 01:51:26 GMT

On the Design of Text Editors (2020) [pdf]

2 points; 1 discussion reply on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

On the design of text editors — HN submission

Sun, 06 Dec 2020 14:12:02 GMT

On the Design of Text Editors

1 point; 0 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

On the design of text editors — HN submission

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 15:53:05 GMT

On the Design of Text Editors

3 points; 0 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.