Re: [9front] Bug or inconsistency in cursor behaviour?

[Thaddeus Woskowiak <tswoskowiak@gmail.com>]

What makes you call the cursor behavior of Plan 9 odd or a bug? Just
because it doesn't behave like one of the big three does not mean it
is broken. Sam predates Plan 9 originating on Unix and ran on the Blit
terminals so it has different roots.

And if memory serves me correctly there is a rant on 9fans explaining
this exact expectation of cursor behavior (Boyd Roberts or BruceE
maybe?). Basically the current expected behavior originated from
Windows and copied by others.

There is a logical argument to the Plan 9 behavior: First, the cursor
disappears when you make a selection because the cursor *IS* the
selection. So if the selection is the cursor then it makes sense that
pressing an arrow key moves the cursor one character over in that
direction. The Windows way is odd because the cursor does not move
when you first press the arrow key which breaks cursor logic. I
believe this is the same argument presented in the 9fans post I
mentioned though more nuanced.

On Mon, Oct 28, 2024 at 4:21 PM <flowerss@cranky.ca> wrote:
>
> I have noticed an odd behaviour when using the arrow keys when text is selected in 9front, and I'm wondering if it's a bug, multiple bugs, or just the way things work.
>
> If I have a string of text in a shell or acme, and I select one or more characters with the mouse, and then use the right arrow key, the text gets deselected, and the cursor moves one character past the right end of the selected text. If I use the left arrow key, the cursor moves to one character to the left of the previously selected text. It feels like the resultin position of the cursor has gone one character too far left or right.
>
> In sam, this behaviour is different. If I select text in sam, and then hit the left arrow key, the cursor moves one character to the left of the initially selected text, and if I hit the right arrow key, the cursor moves to the right of the first character of the previously selected text. This also seems odd.
>
> In Windows, MacOS and all the Linux graphical text manipulation apps I have tried, if you select text and then hit the left arrow, the cursor moves to the beginning of the selection, and the right arrow moves to the end of the selection. This feels like the more appropriate behaviour to me. Am I out to lunch?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Scott