Typewriter mode possible?

[Rainer Krug]

Hi

is it possible to have typewriter mode (i.e. the line I am typing in stays in the middle off the screen) in BBEdit? I haven't found anything along these lines. Did I miss it?

Thanks,

Rainer

 

[jj]

Hi Rainer,

You can "kind of" simulate typewriter mode with this applescript.

It only has effect once your text overflows the window because it takes advantage of the fact that, when jumping around, BBEdit repositions the current line at ± 25% of the window height. 

Note that there is a bit of blinking that I don't know how to avoid.

Save it to the Scripts folder and give it a keyboard shortcut like <Ctrl-return>.

    --

    # ~/Application Support/BBEdit/Scripts/0-[⌃↩︎]-[typewriter_return].applescript

    try

        tell application "BBEdit"

            tell first window

                if class of its selection is not insertion point then

                    return

                end if

                tell its selection

                    set vCharacterOffset to (its characterOffset) as integer

                    set its contents to linefeed

                end tell

                tell its first document

                    select insertion point before its first text

                    select insertion point after its character vCharacterOffset

                end tell

            end tell

        end tell

    on error aMessage 

        display alert aMessage

    end try

    --

HTH,

Jean Jourdain

[jj]

BTW, you should also set BBEdit Preferences > Editing > 'Extra vertical space ("overscroll") in text view' to 'Full Window'.

Jean

[Rainer Krug]

Interesting. But I have to use the shortcut ⌃↩︎ to execute the typewriter scrolling - so it is not automatic. Correct?

On Wednesday, November 24, 2021 at 10:21:19 AM UTC+1 jj wrote:

[jj]

Correct. At the moment, that's all I can think of to try to mimic typewriter mode.

[Rainer Krug]

Thanks - in this case I will stick with what it is at the moment.

This would probably be to much for my muscle memory.....

Thanks anyway,

Rainer