Feature Request: Highlight the active character in character-wise selections.

When selection behavior is set to character, the VSCode cursor beam / block / underline does not reflect the fact that the cursor is on an active character instead of a position between characters.

The block cursor shape in VSCode is especially misleading since it highlights one character AFTER the active character when selection is forwards. (Backward selections are fine though.)

It’ll be great if Dance add an option to highlight the active character within the extension. In this way, users can learn to keep their eyes on that one and ignore / hide the VSCode cursor. This helps to reduce confusions like #96.

[losnappas]

I did some tinkering around with the “select if nothing is selected” method, here’s what I’ve got

  {
    "key": "d",
    "command": "dance.run",
    "when": "editorTextFocus && dance.mode == 'normal'",
    "args": {
      "code": [
        "const editor = vscode.window.activeTextEditor;",
        "if (editor === undefined) return;",
        "const selection = editor.selection",
        "const nothingSelected = selection.start.line === selection.end.line && selection.start.character === selection.end.character;",
        "if (nothingSelected)",
        "return vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.right.extend').then(() => vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.delete.yank'))",
        "else",
        "return vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.delete.yank')"
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "key": "c",
    "command": "dance.run",
    "when": "editorTextFocus && dance.mode == 'normal'",
    "args": {
      "code": [
        "const editor = vscode.window.activeTextEditor;",
        "if (editor === undefined) return;",
        "const selection = editor.selection",
        "const nothingSelected = selection.start.line === selection.end.line && selection.start.character === selection.end.character;",
        "if (nothingSelected)",
        "return vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.right.extend').then(() => vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.delete.insert.yank'))",
        "else",
        "return vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.delete.insert.yank')"
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "key": "shift+k",
    "command": "dance.run",
    "when": "editorTextFocus && dance.mode == 'normal'",
    "args": {
      "code": [
        "const editor = vscode.window.activeTextEditor;",
        "if (editor === undefined) return;",
        "const selection = editor.selection",
        "const nothingSelected = selection.start.line === selection.end.line && selection.start.character === selection.end.character;",
        "if (nothingSelected)",
        "return vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.right.extend').then(() => vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.selections.flip')).then(() => vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.up.extend'))",
        "else",
        "return vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.up.extend')"
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "key": "p",
    "command": "dance.run",
    "when": "editorTextFocus && dance.mode == 'normal'",
    "args": {
      "code": [
        "const editor = vscode.window.activeTextEditor;",
        "if (editor === undefined) return;",
        "const selection = editor.selection",
        "const nothingSelected = selection.start.line === selection.end.line && selection.start.character === selection.end.character;",
        "if (nothingSelected)",
        "return vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.right.extend').then(() => vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.paste.after'))",
        "else",
        "return vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.paste.after')"
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "key": "y",
    "command": "dance.run",
    "when": "editorTextFocus && dance.mode == 'normal'",
    "args": {
      "code": [
        "const editor = vscode.window.activeTextEditor;",
        "if (editor === undefined) return;",
        "const selection = editor.selection",
        "const nothingSelected = selection.start.line === selection.end.line && selection.start.character === selection.end.character;",
        "if (nothingSelected)",
        "return vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.right.extend').then(() => vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.yank'))",
        "else",
        "return vscode.commands.executeCommand('dance.yank')"
      ]
    }
  },

Put that in your keybindings.json and use the “caret mode” (not character), I think it works a bit better, haven’t gotten any issues so far, but then again I’ve only tried this for a day.

[yerlaser]

Not really a solution, but rather a dirty hack: hide the cursor by making it same color as the highligh background. I made it with these lines:

“dance.normalMode.cursorStyle”: “line-thin”, “editor.cursorBlinking”: “solid”, “workbench.colorCustomizations”: { “editorCursor.foreground”: “#e7f1fa” }

The foreground color above must be found experimentally according to the color scheme used. With this I have peace in mind with the character-wise setting.

P.S. This also affects the cursor color in insert mode, but when it’s in its default “line” width it gives enough of a clue on where the insertion poit is.