[Haskell-cafe] Re: Best text editor

[Neal Alexander]

Michael P Mossey wrote:
> Ketil Malde wrote:
>> Michael Mossey <mpm at alumni.caltech.edu> writes:
>>
>>> I'm a beginner, but I'll chime in and say I use Emacs with
>>> haskell-mode. It's auto-indentation is a bit complex in behavior which
>>> is unappealing (I feel like I never know what it's going to do when I
>>> hit tab), but I would be curious what someone with more experience
>>> feels about that.
>>
>> Just keep hitting tab until you have the indentation you want.
>>
>> -k
> 
> Well, that's a bit like driving a car and saying, "Keep turning the 
> wheel back and forth until the car goes in the direction you want." 
> Seriously, good user interfaces have simple, predictable behavior. Also, 
> very often you never get the indentation you want no matter how many 
> times you hit tab. Of course, I'm grateful to have a haskell-mode at 
> all, and the syntax highlighting is helpful, so I don't want to complain 
> too much. I tried switching to the "simple indentation mode" but I can't 
> tell the difference.
> 
> I would like a mode that advances to the right in a simple way (checks 
> lines above for alignment positions, and advances one position at a 
> time). Maybe I'll write one. I do have a bit of experience with emacs lisp.
> 
> Thanks,
> Mike

I use console emacs in a Screen session over ssh.


The haskell-mode tabbing annoyed me at first, but i learned to love it.