Animating From Markup Code To Rendered Result 72
New submitter lulalala writes "Writing documents using markup languages isn't always easy. Take Wikipedia, for example: one often needs time to relocate the current focus when they switch between previewing and editing mode. Now with Gliimpse, one can watch the markup code gradually turn into the rendered result. The demonstration on Youtube simply looks amazing, and shows that the software supports many markup languages, including LaTex Mathematics."
Depends (Score:4, Insightful)
How is that "better" than a browser open you can Alt-Tab to and refresh in two keystrokes? Cognitively it looks like a mess, and I don't see the benefits, even after RTFA and WTFV. I do HTML and CSS for a living and have tried just about every IDE and tool combination that's been available since HTML was born, and (IMHO) nothing beats a code aware text editor and the latest browsers to preview the rendered markup. There just isn't much loss in productivity when you're using keyboard shortcuts to bounce back and forth from code to render in less than 3 seconds. Load times? Well, in development those should be almost nil because you should be working from a local dev server on your network. I just don't see the gain from this application's approach, especially when you add in the bane of every WYSIWYG markup editor the ever moving standards support game. The browsers are always ahead of the WYSIWYG editors as far as new standards support.
My thoughts exactly (kinda) when it comes to html editing. People can do fine (and actually do) by simply alt-tabbing+F5.
I do disagree, however, in that it cognitively looks like a mess or that there are no benefits. The algorithms explored in this research *could* be integrated into professional editing tools that spit out html (or any markup for that matter). If all I need to do is press one key to toggle back and forth from preview to editing in a single window, that on itself is efficient (subject to the editing person's predilection) than alt-tabbing+F5 with two windows.
Beyond html, this would certainly help with wikitext or latex. Call me crazy, but I would prefer a single toggle key to preview my wikitext on demand (and certainly with latex, which even with tools like LyX, previewing always take more than a few keystrokes.)
Beyond the actual need for something like this (which people can legitimate question), the algorithms and idea behind this are impressive.
My memory is fuzzy... (Score:2, Insightful)
Didn't Word Perfect used to have an edit window for the markup at the bottom of the screen, while the top of the screen displayed the formatted text?
I've always thought that was a good idea compared to tools like Eclipse which flip between rendered and raw views (display both on the same tab, people!), but it's definitely not a new idea.
Re:What's the point? (Score:2, Insightful)
By tools that are stuck in the 20th century, and that produce a horrid mess of nonstandard buggy code that you don't want to have to edit ever again. Good riddance, Dreamweaver and Frontpage.
Re:What's the point? (Score:4, Insightful)
I really love how a single image and a paragraph turns into a 2MB html file and 10 pages of markup.
Seriously though.
When a gui editor can create easily read code that loads faster than something I can do in the same amount of time with notepad, I'll think about switching, and so will the other 400,000 people on slashdot who do this type of work.
Until then, STFU about gui html editors and let the professionals talk.