Playing around in the keybindings, I found SelectBeginStream... if I press the keystroke for it (default Ctrl+Q,S) the select-startpoint becomes locked to the current text-cursor position, the mouse cursor becomes a down pointing arrow, and clicking anywhere just changes the select-endpoint.
Is that it? Is it just a different mode for selecting? I'm curious what the function of this is for... searching the textpad help for 'stream' found nothing, and searching the forums for 'SelectBeginStream' was similarly fruitless. Just wanted to know what that command is for.
SelectBeginStream - Wuzzat?
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ben_josephs
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- Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2003 9:22 pm
So 'stream' mode is when you're selecting from exact cursor position to exact cursor position? And line mode is when it grabs the whole line the cursor starts and ends with, reguardless of where the cursor is positioned in the line?
I think the help should be revised to define what 'stream' means to Textpad. I would have understood what the bind was for if I knew what they meant by 'stream'... my idea of what a stream meant was colored by the coding definition, and it made me think the command was more complex than it was.
I think the help should be revised to define what 'stream' means to Textpad. I would have understood what the bind was for if I knew what they meant by 'stream'... my idea of what a stream meant was colored by the coding definition, and it made me think the command was more complex than it was.
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ben_josephs
- Posts: 2461
- Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2003 9:22 pm
The terminology is probably from Unix, which introduced the idea that a file should be treated as a simple sequence - a stream - of characters (and not, for example, as a sequence of punched cards, line printer records or tape blocks).
In stream mode the file is treated as a sequence of characters, and the selection includes all characters in that sequence between two given end points. In block mode the file is treated as a two-dimensional array of characters, and the selection contains all characters within a rectangle defined by two given opposite corners.
In stream mode the file is treated as a sequence of characters, and the selection includes all characters in that sequence between two given end points. In block mode the file is treated as a two-dimensional array of characters, and the selection contains all characters within a rectangle defined by two given opposite corners.