Control: tags -1 + moreinfo
Control: retitle -1 aptitude: consider setting cursor position at the end of
text fields (e.g. search box)
Hi Antonio,
2011-02-17 10:15 Antonio Ospite:
Package: aptitude
Version: 0.6.3-3.2
Severity: wishlist
Hi,
maybe we can improve the cursor position in textfields (search box, limit
display box): currently it is always at the _beginning_ of textfields, even
when there is text in them already.
Here is how aptitude behaves now:
1. Open the Search box (For example with the '/' key)
2. Insert some text and press OK
3. Open the Search box again, the cursor is shown at the _beginning_ of the
previously inserted text.
4. To replace the text the user can:
a. Insert a new text directly, _replacing_ the current one altogether
b. Use the right arrow key to put the cursor at the end of the text and
use Backspace to delete it (Del/Canc does not seem to work).
I observed myself doing 4b. most of the time (I should really say "always"),
and moving the cursor is kind of annoying.
However, if it was decided that the cursor has to be shown at the _end_ of the
text box then 4a. would not be look right either, the user would expect to
_append_ new characters to the text when inserting something new.
Bottomline, I propose to put the cursor at the _end_ of the text in textfields
and only allow to delete the text with backspace, in order to follow what IMHO
are the "expectations" of most of the users.
If the current behavior depends on ncurses and not directly on aptitude, then
sorry for the noise.
I was never very happy about this behaviour, but now that it's been like
that for more than a decade, I am not sure if it's a good idea to change
it, breaking the assumptions of users.
Thus marking as +moreinfo to give it some consideration about what to
do.
Also, if you haven't discovered that yet, note that you can use keys
"End" and shortcut "Control-e" (as in emacs, bash, etc) to go to the end
of the line, or "Home" and "Control-a" to move to the beginning.
"Control-u" removes the line from the beginning to the position of the
cursor, and "Control-k" from the current position until the end of the
line. Possibly other shortcuts work as well.
Cheers.
--
Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo <manuel.montez...@gmail.com>
