[UX Improvement] view_input.v : standard selection and cursor movement QOL features

[RubyCascade]

Cursor movement

• Small jump
  • modifier key is control on Windows and Linux, and option (alt) on Mac
  • mod + left or right arrow key to jump to the beginning or end of either the current or next word in that direction
  • mod + up or down arrow key to jump to the beginning or end of either the current or next paragraph in that direction
• Large jump
  • modifier key is command on Mac, unknown on Windows and Linux
  • mod + left or right arrow key to jump to the beginning or end of either the current line
  • mod + up or down arrow key to jump to the beginning or end of either the current text field/document
• Selection jump
  • while text is selected pressing the left or right arrow key will jump the cursor to the beginning or end of the selection
  • while text is selected pressing the up or down arrow key will jump the cursor to the beginning or end of the selection before going up or down
  • selection jumps do not occur while shift is held
  • selection jumps can occur in combination with small and large jumps, with selection jumps occurring first

Selection

• double primary clicking selects whole words
  • over spaces the entire chunk of spaces is selected
  • other characters are not selected in chunks (afaik)
  • dragging after double primary clicking also works, selecting from the beginning or end of the word, chunk of spaces, or other single character that is double clicked on to the beginning or end of the word, chunk of spaces, or other single character the mouse cursor is over, whichever pair is furthest
• triple primary clicking selects whole paragraphs
  • dragging after triple primary clicking also works, selecting from the beginning or end of the paragraph that is triple clicked on to the beginning or end of the paragraph the mouse cursor is on the same vertical level as, whichever pair is furthest
• selection with shift + arrow keys can be combined with small jumps and large jumps, this behavior should be emergent and shouldn't need any extra code (I'm pretty sure)
• single secondary clicking an unselected word selects the word and brings up the input field's context menu if available

Notes

• Windows functionality was tested using Notepad
• Linux functionality was tested using the text editor for Linux Mint, Xed
• in Notepad the short jump up/down functionality does not appear to exist, however I believe it can most likely be included with little to no issue
• in Xed the up/down short jumps were similar, but it wasn't the same. the way they implemented it was unintuitive, so I say do it this way.

[mike-ward]

Thanks for doing this. The input-view, as it currently stands, is minimally viable. Enough to get by but lacking. It may be quite some time before I return to it. I'm beginning to think I may have been a bit crazy to take this on (but it sure is fun).

[RubyCascade]

You're welcome. :3
forgot this so I added it

• single secondary clicking an unselected word selects the word and brings up the input field's context menu if available

[mike-ward]

I've noticed that editors like JetBrains and web browsers use slightly different cursor selection jumps. For instance, Alt+left selects the start of the word while Alt+right selects the end of the word, regardless of direction. I'm implementing this behavior instead, but I can be convinced to do otherwise if a good case can be made for it.

[RubyCascade]

Which one of my recommendations does this correspond to? The first one under Cursor movement -> Selection jump? Or the second one under Cursor movement -> Small jump? Or something else?

Also, some of the items in the list don't have checkboxes. Is that intentional?

[mike-ward]

First one. The ones I left out were unintentional.

[RubyCascade]

Alright, so.. testing the behavior in one of the examples the way it seems to me is that Cursor movement -> Small jump -> [item 2] is implemented correctly and Cursor movement -> Selection jump -> [item 1] is not implemented.

[RubyCascade]

btw PyCharm CE by JetBrains seems to have both of those behaviors

[mike-ward]

Not sure there is one correct way. Modeled after browser on Mac.

[mike-ward]

Have not implemented selection jump.

[RubyCascade]

Not sure there is one correct way. Modeled after browser on Mac.

There's no "one right way", but there does seem to be a general convention of following the standard OS behavior.

For example the majority of ('normal') applications on mac follow the standard behavior, but a lot of games often don't implement anything beyond the most basic text navigation behavior because it's not strictly necessary if you're only interacting with text minimally.

Another example is that the Steam app follows Windows standard behavior even on Mac, such as alt + left/right arrow navigating through page history instead of doing small jumps in text. (pretty annoying, but not a huge deal)

As this is a generic GUI module that will (hopefully) be used in lots of applications it would be best to follow the convention / standard OS behavior to provide a smooth experience for users.
_{(for example, if I remember correctly, I pretty much immediately noticed that these behaviors were not present when I started testing the text inputs a few months ago. I don't think I was even checking for that initially, it's just that I use these things so naturally that I immediately noticed their absence.)}

[mike-ward]

Agreed. I'll continue to implement the cursor movements you have outlined. Thank you for your continued effort here to help me sort out these behaviors. For now, I'm working to get it working even if it imperfect and then tune it based on feedback.

[mike-ward]

I've documented in code and below what I believe to be working. The jump movements are currently not as requested above. That may change with feedback. I'm more concerned at the moment if cursor movements behave as I have documented. It's easy enough to change jump operations to be direction-aware later if that's what we decide.

• left/right moves cursor left/right one character
• ctrl+left moves to start of line, if at start of line moves up one line
• ctrl+right moves to end of line, if at end of line moves down one line
• alt+left moves to end of previous word (option+left on Mac)
• alt+right moves to start of word (option+left on Mac)
• home move cursor to start of text
• end move cursor to end of text
• Add shift to above shortcuts to select text

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• ctrl+a selects all text (also cmd+a on Mac)
• ctrl+c copies selected text (also cmd+c on Mac)
• ctrl+v pastes text (also cmd+v on Mac)
• ctrl+x deletes text (also cmd+x on Mac)
• ctrl+z undo (also cmd+z on Mac)
• shift+ctrl+z redo (also shift+cmd+z on Mac)
• delete or backspace deletes previous character
• escape unselects all text

---

• While selected, left/right cursor keys move cursor to beg/end of selection (and unselect).