#72 Allow caret movement in virtual space

[John Potelle]

Virtual Space: Optionally allow caret movement into any
column beyond End of Line (up to max line length
32k(?)). Also optionally up to 25 rows below the last
physical line. (note these are two separate options).
When a character is typed (or otherwise inserted into
buffer) in virtual space, fill the virtual space with
apprproriate white space as user setting allows (tabs,
spaces, newlines, etc.).

All caret movement fuctions would need to deal with
caret positions beyond EOL and EOF.

[Martin Raspe]

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Switch on "rectangular selection" and you have it.

As you can only scroll past the end of text only if your
text has less lines than the view (25), there's no point in
moving the caret into virtual space beyond EOT. For that
just add some returns to the end of your file.

[John Potelle]

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I would like this ability in every selection mode, not just
rectangular selection. Also I want to be able to cursor
past the EOF into virtual space without being required to
"enter some returns". The point is the editor should "just
deal with it" and not force the user to do something
different to move the caret anywhere, including into new
(virtual) space. Not being able to scroll past EOT is
another peeve of mine. So I guess that would be another
feature request.

[Martin Raspe]

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Would you mind to explain the general use of this feature in
a programming editor?

[John Potelle]

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Whether programming or just editing text, the requested
feature allows the user/programmer to move the caret to any
location using the keyboard or mouse without having the
caret jump to the EOL (magic caret??). If I am at the end
of a line (col= 60), the next line is only 40 chars long and
I hit DOWN (or KP_DOWN), I want the caret in col 60, not 40
or any other column. Similarly with virtual space beyond
the last physical line. Why is this important? Because it's
far easier and quicker to insert text exactly where I want
it, in non-virtual space or virtual space, and have the
editor deal with adding appropriate whitespace, if required.
Why should there be two modes of operation, "real" space
and "virtual" space? These should work the same from the
user's perspective and the editor should adjust as
necessary. Serveral world-class editors work this way,
CodeWright (Borland) being only one example.

[Matthieu Casanova]

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oh it's very useful and I like this feature too. For example
it helps when you want to align things. Intellij Idea has
this feature for example.
But it requires a lot of changes in jEdit and it is
incompatible with soft and hard wrap I think.