Re: [Nano-devel] [Request] allow deleting a marked region without affecting the cutbuffer

[Liu Hao]

在 2018-10-09 13:53, Brand Huntsman 写道:
> I use X11's clipboard to hold text because nano overwrites the cutbuffer when I 
> cut a line. It would be okay if nano had a second cut function that didn't 
> write to cutbuffer, and should be easy to add it as a flag in the existing cut 
> function. But the external clipboard can also be used as a secondary clipboard, 
> and having nano use it would eliminate this feature.

Yes this is also consistent with a 'secondary clipboard' when working on 
a Linux machine over SSH on Windows.

> Having Bsp/Del cut selected text is logical and most people expect it since 
> everything else works that way. And word cutting doesn't overwrite cutbuffer, 
> so Bsp/Del shouldn't either. If text is marked, Bsp/Del could call the second 
> cut function mentioned above and not perform their normal behavior.
>
> But having a second cut function (and key) would be far more useful than having 
> Bsp/Del cut selected text, since the second cut function could also cut 
> unmarked lines and be used in alternate cuttoend/cuttostart macros that 
> wouldn't overwrite cutbuffer. Making Bsp/Del use it could be optional, but I 
> don't see why, you can undo mistakes. And who actually uses Bsp/Del while text 
> is marked?

I almost forgot that. Initially nano didn't had Undo/Redo, which might 
be the reason why there had been the cut buffer - in case of mistakes 
the text could be uncut. But today we have a nice Undo feature and the 
cut buffer mainly plays a role as the clipboard, so having something 
that deletes text without altering the cut buffer seems reasonable.

> The problem is that if Bsp/Del do this, then so should the copy function and 
> character keys. If text is marked, they could call the second cut function and 
> then perform their normal behavior. If that is too complicated to do, then 
> Bsp/Del shouldn't do it either, for consistency. But the second cut 
> function/key should be added. :)

When the mark is active, Bksp/Del keys delete selection, while any 
character key replaces the selection with a new character. Either 
operation is atomic and does not need a second Undo operation to revert 
when necessary.

> Also, why does Bsp unmark shift selections but Del doesn't?

--
Best regards,
LH_Mouse