FeatureRequest: Block edit mode

[AlexMannW]

Would be great if BeyondCompare, while being in Full-Edit-Mode, offered a Block-Edit-Mode.

This should be the case in all editor scenarios where the content is text, so
* In the Diff-Mode,
* In the 3-way merge mode
* In the Text-Edit-Mode (reachable via context menu of any BeyondCompare editor side.

Block-Edit-Modes in Editors/IDEs are also sometimes called "Block-Selection-Mode" in Eclipse.

If you'd accept this feature request in general then I'd like to tell more detailed suggestions how I think a realization of the block mode would make sense (Editors such as Notepad++, Eclipse, ... all differ slightly different in behavior of that functionality, (default) shortcuts, etc.) I'd have some ideas/suggestions how it would be fit well lin the context of diff-/merge-scenarios.

Best regards,
Alexander

[Aaron]

Thanks for the suggestion. This type of selection and edit is on our Wishlist, and I'll add your notes to our entry on the subject. If you have any ideas you'd want to post here or email to [email protected] (with a link back to this thread), I can append those in as well.

[AlexMannW]

Great that you'll take care about this feature request.

I'd rather like to post my/our detailed suggestions on the feature "Block Edit/Selection Mode" (I'll call it BESM) here in public so that others have the chance to post their wishes which might contradict our ones.

Roughly spoken...
a) we don't like the BESM of Eclipse (but it's better than nothing) and
b) we really like the BESM of Notepad++,
Our suggestions are based on the experience especially of these two examples.

More detailed suggestions/explanations:
= Experiences with BESM in Eclipse =
a1) Eclipse applies the BESM only to the editor (pane) where the cursor is in while the BESM is being activated (don't like).
a2) Beside a button in the button bar (we like) (there's no menu entry for it in default perspective (don't like)) there's a shortcut (like), but the shortcut is very very close to the shortcut to change the keyboard-layout (Windows(7)), so using the shortcut you quite fast accidently change the keyboard layout (don't like).
a3) While BESM is active, the cursor changes to a cross (this might me nice, might be unnecessary).
a4) While BESM is active, the font size changes to some default size, this I think is an indicator that Eclipse somehow changes to some kind of "graphics mode" behind the scenes (don't like).
a5) While BESM is active editing/doing selections is very very slow, especially if you draw the cursor over many lines (>=20) (don't like).

= Experiences with BESM in Notepad++ =
b1) BESM cannot be toggled on<->off (we like), it's "lean&mean",
b2) BESM is being active while you're holding the ALT-key when moving the cursor (doesn't matter if with mouse or with arrow-keys, doesn't matter if w/o holding the SHIFT-key (no selecting) or with holding the SHIFT-key (selecting).
b3) Regarding the actions b31) copy-to-clipboard and b32) cutting-to-clipboard and b33) pasting-from-clipboard there's detailed behavior definition necessary because you can do all of them b31, b32, b33
* Inside BESM and also
* Outside BESM
so for example copy-to-clipboard while in BESM and pasing-from-clipboard outside of BESM.
=> Sticking to the user's view we never thought that Notepad++ does weird things, in other words we would use Notepad++'s behavior as a blueprint for the BESM in BeyondCompare's editors.

Best regards,
Alexander

[Aaron]

Thanks. I'll append these notes into our wishlist entry on the subject. Our Customer Wishlist is not currently scheduled development, but a place our developers go for ideas for future features and enhancements. We have a lot on our plate fixing up any open issues in the recent BC4.0 launch, but when we get some spare cycles we'll review the wishlist for ideas on what to add next.

[xtal256]

Sorry for bumping a >2 year old thread, but I'd just like to add that I also would like a block selection mode similar to that of Notepad++.

[Aaron]

That's alright. I'll bump our Customer Wishlist item with your notes as well.

[buckley]

Bumping this request as well. Long time user of BC here and amazed that it is missing as column mode editing allows us to strip away the details, eg. a fixed length timestamp at the beginning of every line. Pretty please

[Aaron]

Bump added to our notes in our Customer Wishlist.

If it helps, you should be able to define that timestamp pattern at the beginning of every line as Unimportant, so you could ignore any differences in the timestamp section.
http://www.scootersoftware.com/suppo..._unimportantv3