Re: [PATCH] upcoming new feature: smooth whole-window sideways scrolling

Hello,


> Hey other people reading this thread, what do you think? :)

I'm just a user... But users' reactions maybe welcome regarding this 
change.

I set Nano to hard wrap. When I write code, though, I make an exception 
for lines that output error (or debug) messages. I keep the rest of the 
code in 80 columns but I see no point in either constraining error 
messages to fit in that space or using several lines of precious screen 
space to give lots of context to the user. So the code above and below is 
80 columns while the line with the error message can be 200 characters 
long. When writing this line, it's convenient to be able to read the lines 
above so that I can make sure I'm getting variables' names right. For me, 
scrolling the lines above and below while I'm writing the long line would 
be a clear loss. Besides, all the lines above and below would simply 
become empty.

I was trying to think of a use case (for me) for scrolling all the lines 
at the same time. I could find only one example with the files I use: one 
organization I have to send data to wants to receive all its data in text 
files with old-school fixed-width fields. In this situation, scrolling all 
the lines would indeed be more convenient. (But really, these files are 
not made for reading by a human.) In the other examples I thought of, 
scrolling all the lines may actually be inconvenient, for the same reason 
as above (checking names), perhaps when editing firewall rules for 
example.

I completely understand that the proposed feature could be of interest to 
other persons who have other centers of interest and other working habits.

Aesthetically, the proposed feature looks nice and intuitive, and has 
echoes of archeo-Unix times when humanity moved up from ed (1-line editor) 
to vi (full screen!!). Yet, I'm not sure it would really be convenient 
most of the time for most users.

> Since it's such a big change, I worry if we don't make it flexible in 
> some ways it's going to cause people pain to adapt

I'm grateful that Chris suggested an option be made to deactivate the 
proposed feature if it is made the default. (And I would replace "pain to 
adapt" with "everlasting pain + lamenting".)


Sébastien.