Why does gl not select text visually?

[txtyash]

gl doesn't select text till the end and neither does gh till the start. That way deleting text till the end or till the beginning could be one key stroke shorter as opposed to vgld or vghd. Even ge should visually select the text till the end so that ged is a better alternative to vxgegld.

[NNBnh]

Yeah, this make all movement action consistent with find, till, word-next... and I don't see any downside of implement this. All goto movements, unimpaired movements and match_brackets should also select (similar to Kakoune).

[pickfire]

Maybe can submit a pull request for this. I did mentioned this in the chat before as well.

[archseer]

(similar to Kakoune)

Note that this is actually under G in kakoune, not g.

Yeah I'm undecided here. I think it could be a good change, but at the same time not all commands can do this (for example gd, gf etc.) so it would be a bit inconsistent. It makes sense for gl, gh etc. but when using gg/ge I tend to use them for jumping, not selecting. Not sure.

[NNBnh]

Not all commands can do this (for example gd, gf etc.) so it would be a bit inconsistent.

Don't worry, it's not inconsistent at all! It's impossible to select from one file to another, and goto_file is more of a buffer-action rather than a movement to begin with ;-).

When using gg/ge I tend to use them for jumping, not selecting.

In Kakoune i sometime delete everything from the current position to the EOF to quickly rewrite the last void main() { ... } function inside my file. This proves that although not often, it have it's use case.

[sourcefrog]

I also notice this a lot with the home/end keys, which I suppose are bound to the same action.

[sudormrfbin]

It can be configured to extend instead of move, though I agree that it makes more sense for it to extend by default (even though inconsistent). I guess it's similar to the age-old Y vs y$ debate in vim :)

[keys.normal]
"g" = { "l" = "extend_to_line_end", "h" = "extend_to_line_start" }

[txtyash]

but when using gg/ge I tend to use them for jumping, not selecting.

@archseer don't you think both actions could happen with the same keybinding? like ge
takes your cursor to the end while also selecting the text till the end of the
file?

[pickfire]

From the chat from what I know the people do agree that extending visually for goto commands as the default is good too. Just that up till now no one submitted a pull request for it yet. Maybe I might submit a pull request when I get annoyed enough to create a pull request, soon maybe.

[rkshthrmsh]

Thanks for the suggestion. Is there a way to immitate this extend behavior for end of file? Something like:

[keys.normal]
"g" = { "e" = "extend_to_file_end" }

Could not find anything relate to "extend_to_file_end" in the docs.

EDIT:

[keys.normal]
g = { e = ["select_mode", "goto_file_end", "exit_select_mode"]  }

[rcorre]

If I have
abc def| ghi

Then I'd expect gh to give me the same as T<cr>, i.e.:
|abc def ghi

Instead I get
|abc def ghi

The same is true of the gs binding suggested by #1215 (reply in thread) (which we don't have a good t equivalent for).

[txtyash]

If selections are being avoided with these movements due to ugliness reasons then there could be another way UI wise to represent the selection without making the text look ugly.

[rcorre]

By default, I thinkt<cr> and T<cr> have the behavior you're looking for. I use "to the newline" as a mnemonic

[rcorre]

I'm realizing t<cr>/T<cr> will not work on the first line, or the last if the file doesn't end with a newline, so these are not an ideal solution.

[rkshthrmsh]

Apart from gh and gl for selecting till the start of line and end of line respectively, it might also be useful to have gs select up to the first non-blank in line.

[rkshthrmsh]

One keymap that works for this:

[keys.normal]
g = { s = ["select_mode", "goto_first_nonwhitespace", "exit_select_mode"] }

[rcorre]

I ended up with this, to avoid the issue mentioned at #1215 (reply in thread):

s = ["collapse_selection", "select_mode", "goto_first_nonwhitespace", "exit_select_mode"]