Misdescription in tutorial section 3.5

[zpah]

Version: helix-22.12

Tutorial section 3.5 give wrong result.

Quote from section 3.5:

1. Move the cursor to the line marked '-->' below.
2. Move to the F of FOO and type v2w to select the two words.
3. Type d to remove the two words.

Sample line is:
' --> Remove the FOO BAR distracting words BAZ BIZ from this line.'

Expected result:
' --> Remove the distracting words BAZ BIZ from this line.'
Actual:
' --> Remove the FOOdistracting words BAZ BIZ from this line.'

Steps to reproduce:

1. Type 324G move cursor at column 1 in line 324.
2. Type 4wb (as described in Section 3.4) move cursor to the F and next type v2w (wrong selects ' BAR ').
3. Type d erases ' BAR '.

[justinlovinger]

Relevant comment: #1570 (comment). With the current behavior, the correct key sequence for this tutorial is wvw or ;v2w.

[zpah]

Thank you for response. It works right.

It would be nice to correct tutorial and explain that w, b, e commands is not suitable for motion and is not equivalent to j, k, l, h commands (and vim w, b, e commands) but used for selection only. Or change their behavior to more intuitive.

[justinlovinger]

w, b, and e can be used for movement. The issue is an inconsistency where only some motions select. If 2w selected two words, this tutorial could just be 2w without the ;v.

[zpah]

I agree with you about inconsistency of w and 2w (or any [count] w) selections.

But what about motions without selections?

For example, j, k, l, h does not select (motion only), but w, b, e selects (here their mutual inconsistency).
In other words, how to move through text objects (words, paragraphs, ...) without selections (h, j, or vim-style w, b, e) ?

[justinlovinger]

j, k, l, h selects the character moved over, a one-character selection. In Helix, something is always selected.

[zpah]

Thanks for your explanation. I was missing it.

But if you`re proposing that 2w should select two words, then and 2l, 2h, 2k, 2j should also select two characters (for consistency), shouldn`t it?

[justinlovinger]

Yes, for consistency, all motions should select characters traversed over. There is an old unresolved issue about this, #536, and keybinding are still being discussed in general.