The past years have seen an explosive development of powerful computers and workstations. The availability of these computers for the use at home has posed completely new demands on their software. In addition the computer has become less than previously a limitation on the possible programs that can be created. The way is open for programs that are increasingly able to take over small chores which traditionally are handled by the user, and leave the user free to concentrate on the larger task at hand. Programs can also become more and more user friendly, efficient to operate and easy to learn. Thus with a task like editing, the computer can help with many of the tasks of internal organization and checking, leaving the user free to concentrate on his work as a whole. Speed is also important so that minimum time is spent waiting for the computer to perform the various operations, and the time gained can be put to productive work.
A program that is both truly user-friendly and powerful should not only be relatively easy to learn and to remember, but it should be designed in such a way that a minimum of the user's actions are necessary for performing any given task. However even this latter criterion should not be used blindly. There are some instances when an extra key stroke or two are called for to guard against accidental loss of work. After all, what is really behind all requirements of user-friendliness and power is how productive a program will be for the user in the long run. Ultimately it is not only the time spent learning the program or the time spent performing individual tasks alone that counts; what really matters is the overall time required to start a project and get all the way to the end of it.
Hence there are certain protections that ought to be built into a program so that the user will not be liable to make serious and irreversible mistakes which may cause him to lose large amounts of work in the process. Thus for an editor, the program should not allow the user to quit and leave unsaved files behind, without at least asking the user whether these files are meant to be abandoned. If the program allows such a mistake, it would not be maximizing the user's time at all but may cost the user a lot of extra work in spite of how fast individual tasks are performed.
It was with these thoughts in mind that stedi was created. On the one hand, careful attention has been paid to speed in every detail of the program so that individual actions can be performed with maximum efficiency. On the other hand, thoughtful consideration was put into the design of the keyboard usage and the user interface to minimize mistakes that cannot be easily reversed. Flexibility was also a major consideration. There are many options open to the user to determine the default actions of commands, and stedi's keyboard actions can be completely reprogrammed by the user as desired. In addition a powerful macro language enables the user to design his own composite commands. These features allow the user to create an environment tailored to his individual needs and tastes.
Many people work nowadays on more than one computer. This means that they may be confronted with different systems and different software on each computer. In the worst case they have to work with completely different editors for their program development. This can be very annoying. Stedi has been programmed to allow it to run on different computers. It will run best on the rather small computers with their flexible screen and keyboard control, but it is also possible to use it with a standard terminal on mainframe computers. It depends on the flexibility of the terminal and the operating system how well the superior workstation and micro computer environment can be approached.
Because of these considerations, stedi makes as little use as possible of native operating systems without suffering an unbearable loss of efficiency. The exception to this rule is the support of X-windows which has become a de facto standard. Rather than the usual windows, menus and dialog boxes, stedi makes use of a command line interface that gives the user the capability of entering very powerful commands with only a few key strokes; this leaves most of the screen available for displaying text.