From: Jan Vorbrueggen Newsgroups: comp.editors,comp.sys.transputer Subject: Re: Folding editors Date: 31 Oct 1998 14:04:57 +0100 Organization: Institut fuer Neuroinformatik, Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, Germany Distribution: inet Message-Id: References: <36374B57.168B9492@pact.srf.ac.uk> <71aj0c$oc$1@fangorn.moria.de> <6r1znq7264.fsf@belhaven.spider.com> <3639BEFD.2CC25E3C@esgem.com> <6r4ssm59ay.fsf@belhaven.spider.com> Xref: ukc comp.editors:32017 comp.sys.transputer:8896 Alec Cawley writes: > >Folding encourages the hack-it-and-see incremental mentality. > > My experience is the opposite. I have had modules which had essentially > got out of control, and were made comprehensible by folding. > > I go the other way around, if anything. Programs composed of large > numbers of functions can become incomprehensibly fragmented. Folding up > groups of related functions can reduce fragmentation. I particularly > value folding at the top level: my whole module fits on one screen and > reveals itself to consist of maybe a dozen classes. Each of those > classes can then be expanded if necessary. Without folding, I can see no > way that I can overview a whole module. I see folding, thus employed, as > a merging rather than a splitting tool. My experience exactly. It's also great for starting a program, document,...: You generate (empty) folds corresponding to the major parts, and can fill them in at your leisure while always keeping an overview of the structure of the whole. Jan