Undo repeat_last_motion

[ShiromMakkad]

This is coming from: https://www.reddit.com/r/HelixEditor/comments/1ipjmxx/best_way_to_extend_selection_to_character/

Take a look at this snippet: #[default(entity_id("Action", "test-action"))] action: EntityUid.

Imagine I want to jump from the # at the beginning to the a in action. I'll use Alt-. which is bound to repeat_last_motion. If I go too far, I'll overshoot, now my selection is ruined. I'd like something like Vim's , key where you can search in the opposite direction. So if a user executed find_next_char and repeated it, this new action would execute find_prev_char.

This could also be implemented by #1596, but they're not the same interface

[willbush]

related: #8495

A maintainer seems interested in PR to implement this #12092 (comment)

Anyone implementing this should also checkout #8761 (comment)

I might give this ago myself since this drives me nuts as well.

[ShiromMakkad]

If Mike is open to a PR I might do it myself as well. Seems like he's already given an approach, so I think it'll be doable as a first PR.

[willbush]

If Mike is open to a PR I might do it myself as well. Seems like he's already given an approach, so I think it'll be doable as a first PR.

I spent a bunch of time on this yesterday. Think I'll have a PR ready tonight.

[ShiromMakkad]

Awesome, thanks!

[nik-rev]

Awesome, thanks!

Note, while the PR is really nice it doesn't actually solve your problem

There's a risk of overshooting, and I don't see a way to undo this, so I opened #12877.

If you have your cursor at the # here:

principal: EntityUid, #[default(entity_id("Action", "test-action"))] action: EntitayUid

And you press vta, then repeat with Alt-. 3 times instead of 2, your cursor ends up after the Enti. If you want to undo this with A-S-., your cursor will end up just after the first a in action, whilst you likely wanted to undo that movement such that it was as if the 3rd Alt-. never happened (so your cursor would be just before the first a in action)

(the way the PR implements this is correct actually, it works the same way in Vim. Just letting you know, and thinking about potential solutions to the above problem.)

[willbush]

(the way the PR implements this is correct actually, it works the same way in Vim. Just letting you know, and thinking about potential solutions to the above problem.)

some type of soft undo might solve it:

• Soft undo/redo (de)selection #1596
• Allow to undo and redo selection changes mawww/kakoune#4725

[willbush]

However, one could just A-S-. twice then redo the repeat with A-.:

screenrecord.mp4

[ShiromMakkad]

hmmmm, that is kind of a problem. Yes you can go two back and one forward, but that isn't ideal. I don't really understand your last sentence. I opened up vi, searched for a character with f, and using , and ; did bring me back to the original character.

[willbush]

I was using t in the video above and that's what @nik-rev mentioned too. if I use f then it reverse twice is not needed. Works the same as vim.

[ShiromMakkad]

I see. Honestly, I think this implementation and making it an exact undo command is valid, but the current behavior still leaves room for #1596 to be implemented.

Also, this could be used intentionally, although I don't think I would.

Unless an exact undo is easy, I wouldnt mind leaving it as is