In all GUI text editors, web browsers and IDE’s you can move a cursor:

  • left/right arrows - move by char;
  • ctrl+left/right - move by word;
  • home/end - move to start/end of line.

Add Shift to any of above combination and everything you jumped through now is selected and you can: Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X,Delete to copy/cut/delete selection.

Also, you can Ctrl+Delete and Ctrl+Backspace to delete a next/previous word.

Also, you can Ctrl+Home/End to jump to start of first line or end of last line.

I want this to work when I type in a command in my Terminal.

Is it possible in Linux? It’s a vanilla experience in Windows+Powershell, thanks to default PSReadlLine extension. It works both in conhost.exe and in Windows Terminal, but doesn’t work in WT + cmd.exe, which makes me think it’s PSReadLine which is responsible for this technological perfection.

“But you can’t copy with Ctrl+C, it’s…” - You can. When something is selected It copies selection to clipboard, otherwise it sends SIGINT.

I’m not bound to any distro or terminal application, but right now I don’t see these incredible text editing techniques working even in Ubuntu+Powershell+PSReadLine, to say nothing about the Bash. I’ve tried installing WezTerm, but it doesn’t have text selection either, at least by default. And I’m inclined to think it has nothing to do with terminal emulators at all, since it works in conhost.exe+Powershell.

  • balsoft@lemmy.ml
    21·
    1 day ago

    I think this is one of many un-features in Linux world where

    • It would benefit a beginner
    • It sounds simple but actually quite complicated to get right (especially if you aim to keep compatibility with things)
    • Anyone possessing the skills to implement it neither needs it nor cares about it

    As such, for you individually, I suggest just getting more comfortable with tmux (or zellij) and vi-like keybinds for text manipulation. Once you learn those (and set your readline mode to vi), you won’t look back. Oh, also, try Ctrl+x Ctrl+e in bash, it might help.

    Or switch to emacs and using it as a terminal emulator. In that case you will have to learn and use emacs keybindings, but the selection semantics in the “terminal” will be the same as in the “editor”.

    • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.orgEnglish
      2·
      11 hours ago

      Add Windows-like Alt codes to the list. They’re not perfect (they use a DOS codepage and A-F in the Unicode extension clash with shortcuts in other programs like Firefox, although not passing them through via xkb would solve this) but people use them a lot, especially in my country. At? Alt+64. Backtick? Alt+96. Caret? Alt+94. Hash? Alt+38. Musical note? Alt+13. Yes, we can type most of these on the Czech layout with AltGr but people don’t know this and/or prefer things that work on the commonly default English layout too.

      • balsoft@lemmy.ml
        1·
        7 hours ago

        I prefer compose keys because they are easier to remember.

        Oh, also, I think GTK apps have that Ctrl+shift+U thing which allows you to enter characters by code. Never really got used to it though.

        • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.orgEnglish
          1·
          6 hours ago

          I’m getting used to Compose and AltGr. Unexpected Keyboard for Android helps learn compose codes by visualizing them but it’s still a bit of resistance. And yes, Compose can also be used to input Unicode hex codes.

          Either way, I created a custom layout for AltGr and Shift+AltGr layers that is more convenient for me than remembering Compose and Unicode codes.