- go to last non-space character
- go to the last character (i.e. hit end twice)
Feedback along with why you prefer solution A or B is welcome!
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Smart End
Since KDE 3.5.4 Kate Part supports "smart end". Right now it behaves like this when pressing "end":
Feedback along with why you prefer solution A or B is welcome!
Feedback along with why you prefer solution A or B is welcome!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
I prefer to go to the very last character with End, and to the last non-space only when hitting End for the second time. That's because I often inadvertently leave spaces at the ends of lines, which is bad. If an end doesn't take me to the very last char, it'll get worse.
can't a third End go to the end of the document, btw? same with Home three times...
@superstoned: no, use ctrl+end/home for that.
The first pulsation should go to the last non-space character, and the second pulsation should go to the end of the line. Logixoul solution is completely unintuitive (the second pulsation would bring the cursor back, but the 'end' key has the "forward" connotation).
I fully agree with three end's going to the end of the document.
I'd go with solution a) due to victor's very same reasons...
@pipitas: The users will very quickly notice that pressing Home in Kate makes the cursor jump to the first non-space character. Therefore a similar behavior of End would be only logical.
In order to make the behavior (first jump after the last non-space character, then jump to the very last character) less surprising I suggest to show trailing whitespace by default. Then it will be obvious. Moreover, on the very first press of End (or alternatively on the very first press of End which doesn't take the user to the very end of the line because the line has trailing whitespace) you could show a "Tip of the day" telling the user about Smart End.
IMO it's much better to tell the user how Kate works than to hide the smart end behind a double End. The cursor jumping forward on the second press of End will completely confuse newbies and will surely provoke a few bug reports.
Another idea... when you use end to go to the last non-space character, the true last character in the line would flash. This way, you know if there are spaces.
After reading the recent comments, I've changed my mind.
I now prefer to go to the last non-space with End and to the very last character only when hitting End for the second time.
However, I suggest that whitespace is unconditionally displayed when at the end of the line. This way everybody should be happy.
Thanks for all the input so far. As expected both versions have their pro & contra. For now we stick to the current implementation, i.e. go to last non-space, and then to EOL.
If this does not feel right in the long run, we can change it for kde4.
Agreeing with pipitas...
Unless I've missed something, there is only one point for the first End stroke jumping to the last non-whitespace:
* A second End moving backward is unintuitive
* Home goes to the first non-whitespace character.
And for the first End jumping to the real last character? As follows:
* Unrealized spaces at the end of a line
* Heading back to the end after correcting text earlier in the line
Now logixoul decided to change his/her opinion after reading comments so I'll call the above 1.5 for End going to the end (pipitas also mentioned point #1) versus 2 for End not going to the end. For the record, I often head back to the end after correcting text earlier in the line. Also for the record, I think Smart End was a good invention and should remain (albeit triggered by the second End stroke).
However, are any of those points really representative of general usage? Does Kate (and by extension KWrite and KDevelop) even fall into the "general usage" group? Isn't Kate a programmer's editor? So now to discredit the points against my preference... ;)
"A second End moving backward is unintuitive". Well, a third End moving backward is just as unituitive. Need I say more?
"Home goes to the first non-whitespace character". This is logical for programming. Regardless of whether it's C++ or HTML, whitespace at the start of line is almost always used to show structure. When editing, there is very little need to edited said structure after defining it. But where does whitespace at the end of a line fit it? How often is it that one wants to not edit at or after whitespace at the end of a line?
I may be wrong, but I think that Smart End is the default in KDE 3.5.4? Adding to the list of points against End jumping to the last non-whitespace character, isn't that a change in *existing functionality* for a dot release?
Finally, while I agree that this choice should really go to openusability.org rather than being decided by 12 blog comments, I would really like to ask you Dominik:
How often do you find the need to edit the non-whitespace characters immediately preceding the end-of-line whitespace and does that exceed how often you want to jump to the real end-of-line?
Post a Comment