Although we have the computer power to edit programs in more abstract terms than characters and lines, and many “natural” programmers have the thought power to do so, editing is still often done character-by-character, which seems to be inefficient, unreliable, and a waste of human effort. Versor aims to move beyond that.
Versor is also part of a research project (see Versor and research), which looks into whether programmers really have moved on from thinking of edits in terms of the lines of characters that they see on paper listing and on editor screen.
Ideally (especially for those whose hands are becoming tired of
keyboard use) it should be possible to enter and edit programs with
very little handling of individual characters. Versor tries to get as
close to this as possible. (It includes an analysis facility
(see Analysis) to see well it is doing in this, with each
particular programmer.) All that need be entered character by
character are new identifiers and comments. It may even be possible in
future versions to offer a selection of suitable names for variables
in certain circumstances, such as i for a first index variable,
as some of these are quite stereotyped by role.