I play a lot with the live CSS editor on the browser inspector mode (F12). A similar block-editor for JSON available here: https://jsoneditoronline.org (choose the "tree" view).

Obviously if you want to write complete code with those editors it's a bit annoying, but the basic idea of structured coding language when everything is formatted and align automatically, 100% autocomplete support and an editor that understand exactly what I'm going to type next, feeling like much better way then the standard text-editors.

What if there will be a code editor (for TypeScript for example), that was built for programmers like any other text-editor with 100% keyboard support, but literally don't let you to write a free style code. Instead it guide you with pre-defined templates and let you choose from a list what the next statement (or token) will be. It's basically a strict way to produce JavaScript AST (or any other structured data) while using text templates.

Here are a few main features:

1. Focus on the real code. Automatically format, adds spaces and punctuations like ; , or {...} on the right places (like the Chrome CSS editor)
2. All generated code is valid and sound (perfect for newbies).
3. Calling functions automatically convert to templates with matched placeholders so you can choose fast the right arguments from an autocomplete list (TypeScript based): restPassword(<User>, <string>);
4. Objects are automatically structure on a key-value format so you can type much faster
5. Automatically wrap strings and object key names with quotes when needed: { helloworld: 1 } » { "hello-world": 1 } or 'Whats up' » "What's up"
6. Change a variable name immediately rename it on all references as you type
7. Build custom templates and complete new syntax that compiled to the targeted language.

What do you think? Is a template-base editor can be more efficient for writing code?