Text editor undo system, undo step grouping behavior #71735

New Issue

Campbell Barton · 2019-11-21T17:33:41+01:00

Campbell Barton commented

2019-11-21 17:33:41 +01:00

This design task is to resolve how to handle undo steps in the text editor (and possible text fields in the future).

Possible options:

Keep current behavior - each key is a single unto step.
Group by character type / action.
Group using a timer, so characters typed in quick succession are put into a single undo step.

The timer can be a preference, so users who type slowly or prefer to have the current behavior can either increase the timer or set it to zero.

Note:

Using a timer may be unpredictable especially when the users typing speed hovers around the limit - undo groupings may seem unpredictable.
Using whole words may have the disadvantage that large blocks get undone (not fine grained enough).
Having grouped undo makes it difficult to test undo/redo (developer detail, even so - noting it here).

Proposal

Undo grouping will only be done for single character insertion/removal.
Undo wont group edits separated by cursor motion.
Word level grouping has the same delimiters as pressing Ctrl-Left/Right,

this means whitespace/punctuation & alpha-numeric characters will be undone/redone in blocks.

Have a preference for the text editor to group undo by words or characters.
(this allows undo testing code to behave predictably).

Maybe there are other options, @WilliamReynish we discussed this a while ago.

Creating because D6283: Add undo grouped to Insert and Delete text operator was submitted which.

This design task is to resolve how to handle undo steps in the text editor (and possible text fields in the future). Possible options: - Keep current behavior - each key is a single unto step. - Group by character type / action. - Group using a timer, so characters typed in quick succession are put into a single undo step. ``` The timer can be a preference, so users who type slowly or prefer to have the current behavior can either increase the timer or set it to zero. ``` Note: - Using a timer may be unpredictable especially when the users typing speed hovers around the limit - undo groupings may seem unpredictable. - Using whole words may have the disadvantage that large blocks get undone (not fine grained enough). - Having grouped undo makes it difficult to test undo/redo *(developer detail, even so - noting it here).* ---- **Proposal** - Undo grouping will only be done for single character insertion/removal. - Undo wont group edits separated by cursor motion. - Word level grouping has the same delimiters as pressing Ctrl-Left/Right, ``` this means whitespace/punctuation & alpha-numeric characters will be undone/redone in blocks. ``` - Have a preference for the text editor to group undo by words or characters. *(this allows undo testing code to behave predictably).* ---- Maybe there are other options, @WilliamReynish we discussed this a while ago. Creating because [D6283: Add undo grouped to Insert and Delete text operator](https://archive.blender.org/developer/D6283) was submitted which.

Campbell Barton self-assigned this 2019-11-21 17:33:41 +01:00

Campbell Barton commented

2019-11-21 17:33:41 +01:00

Added subscribers: @WilliamReynish, @ideasman42

Valentin commented

2019-11-21 19:08:21 +01:00

Added subscriber: @Poulpator

Kai Jægersen commented

2020-09-12 01:18:50 +02:00

Added subscriber: @KaiJaegersen

Matheus Santos commented

2021-11-13 14:00:08 +01:00

Added subscriber: @Matheus-Santos

Matheus Santos commented

2021-11-13 14:06:26 +01:00

I would propose a two level undo for the text editor. While typing a word, all characters are temporarily stacked as undo steps, as soon as an special character is added, this temporary undo stack is flattened into a single undo and added to the main undo stack, also, it would initialize the new stack for the new word.

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Text editor undo system, undo step grouping behavior #71735