Enhancement of x key-binding to be more flexible.

[dimus]

It is probably related to #1596; however, this approach is slightly different.

In Helix, v key-binding is quite flexible and allows for very nice control over selection by using the hjkl keys.

However, it does not allow selection on the level of lines.

The extend_line_below command is bound to x and does allow selecting one or more lines. However, it does not allow for shrinking the selection, so if too many lines are selected, we have to restart the entire selection process.

It would be nice if x behaved consistently with v and similar to Shift-v in Vim, allowing flexible line selections.

I do have a workaround currently by reassigning x to achieve an approximation of such behavior:

[keys.normal]
x = ["select_mode", "extend_to_line_bounds"]

This workaround selects a whole line and then allows for controlling the selection with the jk keys.

However, it is not 100% perfect and does increase the size of the configuration, while the selling point of Helix for me is its "working out of the box" approach.

What do you think? Does it make sense, or is a better approach in the works?

[the-mikedavis]

See #2637: a linewise select mode is not planned. Also see #6943 which talks about the same use-case and a keymap you can make for it. IMO this is best solved with selection history as you say (#1596).