[PLUG] HOW to search for a specialized text editor?

[Rich Shepard]

On Mon, 1 May 2017, Richard Owlett wrote:

> Last week I was asked to be one of the proofreaders of a near final draft
> of a ~1300 word document.

Richard,

   What is the format of the document you'll be reviewing?

> Desired specifications:
> 1. It shall have exactly 2 panes.
> 2. Pane 1 shall:
>    a. have a verbatim copy of the original text.
>    b. assign immutable tags (visible or not) to beginning AND
>       end of each paragraph.
>    c. be intrinsically READ-ONLY.
>       That implies that both text and tags are immutable from
>       invocation to invocation.
> 3. Pane 2 shall:
>    a. on initial invocation be a byte for byte duplicate [*INCLUDING*
>       tags] of the original.
>    b. as Pane 2 is edited maintain visual sync of initial paragraph
>       start and ultimate edited paragraph extent. [Is that vague ;]
> Am I even "asking right questions"?

   Dunno.

   2c is incompatible with an editor. 3a can be accomodated with any text
editor capable of working with more than a single buffer at one time.

   Many editing tasks assume intelligence on the part of the hunam so it
leaves things such as changes up to the human and does not force a way of
doing things on that human. Unless you're working with Microsoft, of course.
Then you do it their way. Period.

   Emacs is a fine text editor, but may be more than you want. LibreOffice
Writer might do the job, too. Of course, with your restrictions it might
requre a custom built tool.

Rich