zellij-org/zellij

FR: add rectangular selection

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#2,188 opened on Feb 24, 2023

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 (3 comments) (1 reaction) (0 assignees)Rust (32,593 stars) (1,191 forks)batch import
help wanted

Description

Imaging that some command basically output a small table and you'd like to select only (horizontally) middle part from it and you don't want to bother using awk/sed to get the necessary part.

It would be nice to be able to enter some mode (via menu? using some modifier key other than Shift [which is used by terminal]?) that would let the user do a rectangular selection using mouse (or maybe from keyword as well?).

This should work at very least inside a single pane. But as an extra that feature could also work across multiple panes inside of a single Zellij window. My only worry here would be to not have garbage spaces at the right edge, but that's just nitpicking beforehand.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
rust
Domain
clitooling
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
4
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
3-5 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
Rust programmingTerminal handling knowledgeZellij codebase familiarity
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
30
Research direction
Understand the current selection mechanism in Zellij by examining the codebase, particularly the selection module. Look at how mouse events are processed and how text regions are defined. Propose a design for rectangular selection mode. Check existing discussions in issue #2188 and any related issues for prior design ideas.