The Hacker Within

OK, level editor == monumental && monumentally boring task.  (@pedants: no, that doesn't parse meaningfully as a C++ expression, deal)

In an effort to make some meaningful progress, the Hacker Within has emerged and said those four most dreaded words (when coming from the Hacker Within):  "Why don't you just..."

Sayeth the Hacker Within, "Since everything is specified in text files anyway, why do you actually want to make a UI?  You've been editing attribute files by hand and it's fine.  The file monitor already knows which file was used to define an object.  When the text file changes, it auto-refreshes the object anyway.  Why don't you just do a system call and edit the attribute file of the currently selected object in Notepad++?"

"Well, because that's a stupid idea!  It's inelegant, hackish, brutish, and... oh, it's already done.  I suppose it has that going for it."

"But what about..." I begin to protest.

Sayeth the Hacker Within, "Look, just make some buttons to copy attributes to the Windows clipboard if you want to edit something like, I don't know, transforms in-game."

This has got to be the worst best idea ever.  At least it's progress.