From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: References: Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 23:20:53 +0100 Message-ID: From: roger peppe To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [9fans] Guide to using Acme effectively? Topicbox-Message-UUID: 12ab992a-ead5-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 2009/7/1 Aaron W. Hsu : > 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.