ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the details of the physical environment for the systems and a sample of typical text-editor dialogue. The study of text-editors is a task that is reasonably within the range of the analytic tools we have available from cognitive psychology and computer science. The physical arrangement of the user, his computer terminal, and a text manuscript, though particular to experiments, is entirely typical of the arrangements commonly encountered in offices where computer-assisted document preparation systems are in use. The chapter considers the task of making the modifications indicated on the manuscript fragment. Behavioral studies have focused on editing time and to a lesser extent, on the methods actually used by users, users' errors, and learning. In order to discover how much difference the design of an editor makes to the speed with which text can be edited, the obvious thing to do is compare the speed of several editors on benchmark tasks.
