On Wed, 13 Apr 2022 14:41:40 -0400 Chet Ramey <[email protected]> wrote:
> The first beta release of the GNU Readline library, version 8.2, > is now available > g. There is a new option: `enable-active-region'. This separates > control of the active region and bracketed-paste. > ... Users can now > turn off the active region while leaving bracketed paste enabled. Apologies for the delayed feedback. I jut got to looking through the release announcement and tried some testing. Thanks for work here, but this is not the feature I was trying to implement when I sent in my request for help. I'm unclear what it means, operationally, to turn off the active region in the way you have implemented. As near as I can tell, it means turning of the highlighting. (I could be wrong, but that's what I've been able to determine is the effect of having an active region.) I have not tested, but believe that turning off the hilighting can already be done by setting the on/off terminal strings to empty so I see no reason for the enable-active-region feature as-implemented. The feature I was trying to implement would let newlines take effect in pasted text with bracketed paste on. This would not impair security. Newlines are clearly part of selected/copied text; it is no surprise when they are pasted. And becausee bracketed paste disables all other readline commands, there is no "hidden manipulation" of pasted text and so no opportunity for malicious actors. My proposed separation between bracketed paste and the active region enhances usability by removing the need to press the keyboard's enter key when pasting. It would remove the awkwardness of having to reach back and forth between mouse and keyboard when pasting and, to my mind, remove any reason for wanting to degrade security and turn off bracketed paste. Pastes containing newlines would "paste and run", just like with brackted paste mode off. I intended this be clear from the documentation included in my patch. If you release the new enable-active-region as-is, I will need a new name for the feature I am looking for. I chose the enable-active-region name because the behavior involving the active region was undocumented, so I could define it's interaction with bracketed paste as I desired. At this point, I'd appreciate help getting the feature I'd like. If there's anything the active-region does besides "get hilighted" I'd like to know more so I can write good documentation. Any help regarding how to keep brackted paste mode on, except in the case of newlines, would also help me code. (I thought I had a proof-of-concept before starting real work on a patch. But apparently I mis-tested, so the feature in the patch I wound up with didn't work.) Again, thanks for the work. Regards, Karl <[email protected]> Free Software: "You don't pay back, you pay forward." -- Robert A. Heinlein
