alt Hacker NewsIndeed. The incredibly clumsy way we choose to edit source code has baffled me since I was first acquainted with parinfer. Having to keep the source in the shape of a valid AST almost entirely manually is really annoying.
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Check out Ki editor https://ki-editor.org/ — core movements based on AST
This is borderline silly, though. It is clumsy to start. But so is walking. As is running. Have you seen people start out on bicycles? What about writing? Talking?
That is to say, all things start out clumsy. And people that are good at it, no longer feel that it is clumsy. Which is why a lot of people that have been working with this for any time just don't think of this much.
In the blind community, navigation by indent level is pretty popular, no idea why it hasn't caught on anywhere else.
I find it a nice middle ground between the craziness of vim and the slowness of traditional cursor usage.
Syntax-directed editors were all the rage in the late 70s early 80s...and a huge failure, because they were a lot more annoying than any text editor has a chance of ever being.
It's one of those things that, like visual programming, is absolutely and obviously The Right Thing™ until you try to implement it and use it.
That said, we have made progress in both areas, and maybe we will figure them out in the future.