Re: [PATCH] new feature: horizontal scrolling of full screen

Benno Schulenberg <[email protected]> Mon, 5 Jan 2026 17:22:09 +0100
Newsgroups	gmane.editors.nano.devel
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
Op 05-01-2026 om 04:45 schreef Xylia Allegretta:
> I've added more checks to ensure that the screen stays scrolled
> correctly when using Home/End, inserting or deleting characters,
> and cutting text.

Thanks.

> I agree that it's a bit jarring to scroll the entire screen when
> reaching the next page,

To me it's not just a bit jarring -- it is majorly jarring.

> but that's how nano already handles
> single-line horizontal scrolling, so I don't see why full-screen
> horizontal scrolling should behave any differently.

Horizontally scrolling a single line by nearly the width of the
edit window when all the rest of the lines stay in place is weird
and surprising, but it's just mildly jarring.  As all the other
lines are still shown as they were, the user knows she still is
where she was, and moving back and forth in the line, she will
have quickly figured out what happened.  But also when the user
can figure out what happend when the whole viewport has jumped
nearly a screen width to the right, I still find it too jarring.
The only other editor that does this (that I've found) is Geany.

Gedit, tilde, lpe, and mcedit do what the "smooth horizontal
scrolling" patch does: scroll one character at a time, as needed.

Joe, fte, dte, and le shift the viewport 8 characters at a time,
which I find kind of acceptable.  Ne (nice editor) shifts it 16
characters at a time, which I already find too large a jump.

In summary: a patch that horizontally "scrolls" the viewport in
steps of nearly a full screen width will not be accepted.

> I tried out the 2.3.5 patch, and while it may look nicer, I don't
> think it's as useful to scroll in that way, as you'll many times
> have to scroll past what you're editing and then back to have it
> fully in view.

I don't understand what you're trying to say here.  When nano
indicates with an ">" in reverse video that a line is wider
than the screen, I normally press <End> on it.  With the
smooth-horizontal-scrolling patch this would move the viewport
as far to the right as needed.  If the line were part of a
wide table, this would effectively bring the entire righthand
part of the table into view -- similar to your patch.  And with
a judicious use of Ctrl+Left/Right, one can bring the central
parts of a very wide table into view, to see precisely the
columns that one is interested in -- with your patch the table
is always "split" at a multiple of nearly the screen width.

So... horizontal scrolling will either be smooth, or in steps of
8 characters.  Anything larger than that I find unacceptable.


Benno
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