[OS X TeX] Selection across the two panes of the source window

[Ross Moore]

On 08/11/2009, at 9:03 AM, David Watson wrote:

> On Nov 7, 2009, at 3:53 PM, Alain Schremmer wrote:
>
>> I am moving big chunks of source around and, rather than clicking,  
>> scrolling and shift-clicking so that I can't see the beginning of  
>> my selection anymore, I would like to split the window, click in  
>> the upper pane and shift-click in the lower pane to have  
>> everything in-between selected with the beginning of the selection  
>> highlighted in the upper pane and the end of the selection  
>> highlighted in the lower pane.
>>
>> I am still running TeXShop 2.18 which does not do this and I would  
>> like to know if later versions of TeXShop do.
>
> I think this is an interesting idea, and I wonder if it has ever  
> been done before.

In many software programs that I use you can click at a place showing
in one pane, then shift-click at a location showing in another pane.
Everything in-between is then selected. This applies in particular
with spreadsheets.


This does *not* work in TeXshop's panes; at least not in version 2.14.
It seems that the panes record their clicks separately.

e.g.
    * Click in top pane sets an insertion point.
    * Shift-click in lower pane selects from top of source
      down to the clicked point.
    * Shift-click in top pane selects between this point
      and the previous insertion point.

>
> I could see this type of copy-paste as being triggered by selecting  
> a portion of text, and then scrolling up/down.
> The direction of the initial scroll would indicate whether you were  
> trying to select a block of text higher or lower, and place the  
> bottom/top at the extreme of the window, and as you scroll the  
> paper could "tear" to let you know that you were still scrolling up.

That is a nice idea, for representing a selection that does not
fit entirely within the scrolling window.

> You would have to have something mid-window to let you scroll back  
> the other direction in case of an overshoot, perhaps the "tear"?

Shift click lets you either extend or reduce an existing selection.

In Mail this only lets you adjust from the bottom end.
In TeXshop, it seems to work at either end.

> I don't know, this might not be an expected behavior for select- 
> scrolling, but I can attest to the fact that the current behaviour,  
> where you have to wait

In many Mac programs, you don't have to wait.

Even in TeXshop, it is rather silly to select-drag-scroll;
that is indeed time-consuming.

Better is to click, scroll using the scroll-bar, then shift-click.

> for the window to scroll up/down can be a real pain.
> That's why I switched to using emacs, although I do use TexShop for  
> some documents.


Hope this helps,

	Ross

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Ross Moore                                       ross at maths.mq.edu.au
Mathematics Department                           office: E7A-419
Macquarie University                             tel: +61 (0)2 9850 8955
Sydney, Australia  2109                          fax: +61 (0)2 9850 8114
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