Does anyone know of a text editor that will edit columns of text well?
By this I *don't* mean one that can handle rectangular areas, my preferred editor (vile/xvile) can already do that easily. What I want is a text editor that will maintain existing columns while allowing one to add/edit/delete text within them.
E.g. if I have:-
Some text in column Text in column two Column 3 column 1 continued and more in here etc etc bla bla bla goo goo goo ding ding
... and I edit it as follows:-
Some more text in column Text in column two Column 3 column 1 continued and more in here etc etc bla bla bla goo goo goo ding ding
I want it to maintain things as above without me having to delete the four extra spaces between columns one and two. I want to be able to add text to a line in a column and have it expand the whole column down the file. I.e. there is some sort of 'virtual' delimiter between the columns which is kept vertically aligned, I'm quite happy for this to be an actual character although I'd prefer it to be invisible like a TAB if possible. Thus the above *could* be:-
Some text in column | Text in column two | Column 3 column 1 continued | and more in here | etc etc bla bla bla | goo goo goo | ding ding
... and I edit it as follows:-
Some more text in column | Text in column two | Column 3 column 1 continued | and more in here | etc etc bla bla bla | goo goo goo | ding ding
... then add even more text:-
Some more text in column | Text in column two | Column 3 column 1 continued | and more in here | etc etc bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla | goo goo goo | ding ding
with the editor keeping the |s vertically aligned for me. The 'table' add-on for Emacs almost does this but it's for a table (as in text in boxes) rather than text in columns. Searching for 'text edit columns' just comes up with loads of editors that can handle rectangular areas which I can already do.