Re: [9fans] Guide to using Acme effectively?

[roger peppe <rogpeppe@gmail.com>]

2009/7/1 Aaron W. Hsu <arcfide@sacrideo.us>:
> I'm missing
> small things, like how to select and move all the text in one window to
> another in a fast manner

if the amount of text in the window is relatively small, then
just selecting all the text by dragging from start to end
and chord cut/paste is usually fastest.

when there's lots of text, it can be better to
select all the text by typing ":," in the tag and
right-clicking it; then middle click "Snarf" to
copy it to the snarf buffer.

there's a gotcha about using Snarf, which is that
there's actually a concealed "currently selected window"
in acme, and it's not always easy to know which it is...
i haven't found a straightforward way of explaining yet either.
(i think it's possibly the biggest UI flaw in acme. some visual
indication could rectify the problem, i think)

selecting text (with the left mouse button) changes
the currently selected window (which isn't always the body;
it can be the tag)

so if you select the ":," text before clicking Snarf,
you'll end up snarfing the ":," text itself, not
the selection in the body of the window!

you can get around this by left-clicking in another
window; then a Snarf in the original window's tag
will work as desired.

> how to reduce
> redundancy of typing and movement.

i use ESC a lot to select some text i've just
typed. it doesn't work in all circumstances,
but for quick Edit and :/... tag commands that
contain spaces, it's very quick and useful.

it's worth knowing the right-click null-selection expansion
rules, as they can save an explicit selection, which
is always slower.

the main thing that makes the mouse so useful
and versatile in acme is the chorded cut and paste.
it makes the mouse into a genuinely useful manipulation
tool in its own right - cut and paste comprises a significant
proportion of all development activity, in my experience.

only problem is if you ever use Safari and accidentally
do a chorded-cut, it crashes it instantly!

  cheers,
   rog.