Re: [Nano-devel] [RFC] Overwrite mode

[Benno Schulenberg]

Op 18-10-2017 om 05:07 schreef Marco Diego Aurélio Mesquita:
> Thanks for allowing this feature to get in.
I didn't say this feature would get in -- I said I "might consider" it.

I've tested the patch a bit.  I've bound Ins to overtype, then I ran:

  src/nano +12,23 NEWS

and I typed Ins followed by: M-V 004444.

Oh.  It _inserted a Chinese character instead of overtyping the "s"
where the cursor was on.  Now select the Chinese character with the
mouse and paste it repeatedly with a middle click.  Oh.  Each paste
overwrites three letters.  It seems to count bytes instead of columns.
Now press M-U several times.  See how each paste gets undone in two
steps: first the Chinese character is removed, then the three letters
are restored.  Logically, it should have undone the whole series of
pastes in a single go.  (The same goes of course when normal letters
overwrite normal letters: a whole sequence of typing should be undone
as a whole.)

Of course, most people will use either only single-width characters
or only double-width characters, but in the general case (when using
mixed widths) overtype is useless because you overtype half of a
double-width character.

So... for now: the patch has issues.

Benno