Re: Is there a tool that can compute how many keystrokes are need to modify a file to another?

On 2009-12-23, Peng Yu wrote:
> On Dec 23, 6:34 pm, Christophe-Marie Duquesne <chm.duque...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > On 12/23/2009 12:23 AM, Peng Yu wrote:
> >
> > > I'm wondering if there is a tool that can roughly estimate how many
> > > keystrokes (in vim) are needed to modify a file to another.
> >
> > Well, with diff and wc, depending on what you call "roughly" and
> > depending on the text editor, you may obtain a satisfying result...
> >
> > What about
> >
> > diff <file1> <file2> | wc --chars
>
> This is too rough.
>
> I want a tool that can at least take consideration of copy and paste
> (e.g. 'yy' and 'p'). Or better, given a set of commonly used vim
> editing commands, to find the optimal number of keystrokes that are
> needed to achieve the final result. Essentially, I want to evaluate
> how much time it is need to edit a given file by a human being.

That would be a _huge_ task with little utility.

For one thing, if you have a good estimate of what the final file
would look like for comparison, you wouldn't need to edit the first
file--you'd be better off starting with your estimate of the final
file.

Secondly, a program's determination of the "optimal" editing tasks
is likely to be different from a person's choice.

Thirdly, the time I spend editing a file is not spent typing--it's
spent thinking about the meaning of the changes that I'm making.

I think the number of keystrokes needed to edit a file is a pretty
meaningless metric, unless you're comparing editors. You'd be
better off measuring how long it actually takes a person of a
similar skill set to make similar types of changes to a
similarly-sized file.

Regards,
Gary

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