Missing functions...

qwerky
Posts: 172
Joined: 21.10.2013 00:58

Post by qwerky »

But it did work the way I described in SynWrite :o .
qwerky
Posts: 172
Joined: 21.10.2013 00:58

Post by qwerky »

1. In SynWrite, open a file with some text.
2. Use Shift-Right, Shift-Down, etc. to select some text. You get stream selection.
3. In the status bar, click on the Selection Mode panel (or use the hotkey to change to Column Mode, if a hotkey has been assigned to that function.)
4. Now, use Shift-Right, Shift-Down, etc. to select some text. You get column selection :D ! Yay!!
5. Click the status bar Selection Mode panel again (or use a hotkey), and you get Line Selection mode.
6. Click once more, and you're back to normal (stream) selection mode.

This functionality, the way you had it built in SynWrite, is perfect! And it is the same in ConTEXT, PSPad, and RJ TextEd (and quite likely in others that I'm not aware of.) But it is not properly available in NotePad++ or other editors based on the Scintilla edit control. This, in my opinion, gives SynWrite a huge advantage over those Scintilla-based editors!

If CudaText is using a different edit control than SynWrite, or for some other reason this functionality is just not possible, then that is understandable. But if it is possible, please implement it like SynWrite (with hotkeys, status bar panel, etc.) in order to give CudaText that same great advantage :) .
qwerky
Posts: 172
Joined: 21.10.2013 00:58

Post by qwerky »

From my own point of view, you could leave out the Line Selection Mode, so that there would just be two selection modes:
1. Stream (normal) Selection Mode, and
2. Column Selection Mode.
Then instead of three hotkeys, one to select each mode, you could have just one hotkey that toggled between the two modes.

Or, with all three selection modes, you could still have one hotkey that cycled through the three modes, and the status bar panel would indicate the current mode.
Alexey
Posts: 1633
Joined: 05.10.2012 22:10

Post by Alexey »

Ok, its possible. will think how to make it : shift-arrows must use current mode. Are you sure shift-arrows also work for column mode -in other apps? If you sure, i should make it.
qwerky
Posts: 172
Joined: 21.10.2013 00:58

Post by qwerky »

Hi Alexey. ConTEXT is no longer developed, and lacks many of the advanced features. But it remains my standby, and is the first editor which I install, because it just works, and is what I need to configure a new system. Once that is done, I install SynWrite (now CudaText). ConTEXT has Column and Stream modes (not Line mode), and works exactly as described. The status bar panel actually shows the words (either 'column' or 'normal'), and clicking the panel changes the mode, which can also be changed by a hotkey.

PSPad, I just loaded and checked again, has all three modes, Normal, Column, and Line, and works exactly as described. Its status bar panel shows a graphic, just the same as SynWrite--and of course we know SynWrite works as described. In both, the mode can be changed by clicking the status bar panel, or by hotkeys. Perhaps a peek at the SynWrite code in this area would give some thoughts as to how to implement in CudaText?

RJ TextEd, I just loaded and checked again, has Column and Line modes, and works exactly as described. Its status bar panel shows the words (either 'column' or 'row'), and clicking the panel changes the mode, which can also be changed by a hotkey.

The others I didn't check again, but I find them (the Scintilla-based ones, like Notepad++) very frustrating because they say they have the capability, but it doesn't work right! This is closely related to the ability to move the cursor past the end-of-line.

SynWrite, ConTEXT, PSPad, and RJ TextEd are all much better in this regard. And of those, SynWrite/CudaText is far ahead of the others in capabilities! Keep up the great work :D !
Alexey
Posts: 1633
Joined: 05.10.2012 22:10

Post by Alexey »

1)Done, Normal/Column modes:
beta not from me: https://github.com/vhanla/CudaText/rele ... 3.0.0-beta

2) As thanks, can you write a review [not short] at - MacUpdate.com (search "cudatext")
"
qwerky
Posts: 172
Joined: 21.10.2013 00:58

Post by qwerky »

Alexey, as mentioned in e-mail, am working on a review.

vhanla, thank you! That beta is excellent :D !!

You have provided hotkeys for on/off/toggle, so the user can decide which he prefers, and that's great. I use a toggle, so only one hotkey is needed. It would be very helpful if the status bar had a panel which showed what selection mode is currently active; it could show a word, such as "Column" or "Stream" (or "Normal"), or it could show a small graphic. (ConTEXT and RJ TextEd show words; PSPad and SynWrite show a small graphic.)

One bothersome thing is that in column select mode, moving the cursor up/down actually creates multiple carets. This is a bit of a distraction, but once the selection is made, the user can press ESC to remove the extra cursors. A related problem is that after pasting the column text, you are again left with multiple carets. It would be nicer if the multiple carets didn't appear.

But a bigger problem is that when the cursor is moved down, and ESC is pressed to remove the extra carets, the cursor does not end up in the right spot. (When moving the cursor up and then pressing ESC, it does end up in the right spot.) For example, if the cursor is on line 12, and you select right four characters and then down three lines (to create a 4x4 selection) and then press ESC, the cursor is left on line 12 (the topmost caret)--but it should be left on line 15, where it would naturally be if there had been only one cursor (instead of multiple carets). From the same starting position, moving the cursor right four characters and then up three lines, and pressing ESC, leaves the cursor on line 9, just where it should be--where it would naturally be if there had been only one cursor.

Once the selection is made, and the contents copied to the clipboard, that content can then be pasted elsewhere in either insert mode or in overwrite mode, and that is super--even better than what I am used to ;) ! In ConTEXT, for example, pasting is always in insert mode, so that if you want to overwrite a block, you must first select the target block, and then paste, and it will be overwritten. But what happens now in CudaText, if you select the target block and then paste, the clipboard contents are not pasted over the selection, but rather are inserted or overwritten (depending on insert mode) at the position of the topmost caret. But try the same thing in stream/normal selection mode: select some text and copy to clipboard, then move the cursor somewhere else and select exactly the same amount of text, and paste--and the pasted text overwrites the selection--and that's the way it should work.

All-in-all, this is a really good addition, and just needs these few things addressed :) .
Alexey
Posts: 1633
Joined: 05.10.2012 22:10

Post by Alexey »

> It would be very helpful if the status bar had a panel which showed what selection mode is currently active; it could show a word, such as "Column" or "Stream" (or "Normal")
It is already made in release 1.13.1. See post on forum here.
Statusbar has new panel (you must change config if configured statusbar) "selmode" for this.
Alexey
Posts: 1633
Joined: 05.10.2012 22:10

Post by Alexey »

>>thing is that in column select mode, moving the cursor up/down actually creates multiple carets. This is a bit of a distraction

Column-select, with and w/o new commands for columns select, is always making multi-carets. it's a problem? why?
column-select was w/o multi-carets long ago. Ppl asked to do it with carets.
qwerky
Posts: 172
Joined: 21.10.2013 00:58

Post by qwerky »

Alexey wrote:Column-select, with and w/o new commands for columns select, is always making multi-carets. it's a problem? why?
Mainly, I guess, because it is not the way that it is done in other editors (including SynWrite before), and therefore not the way that many users are accustomed to. The first problem is that the user is now forced to manually cancel the carets every time he uses column select. Another problem is that when the carets are cancelled, the remaining caret is not left in the proper place, as described above.
column-select was w/o multi-carets long ago. Ppl asked to do it with carets.
If users want column select with multiple carets, and it is already there, then they should have it. May I humbly request that you make an option, so that column selection can be done with or without multiple carets?
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