processing / processing/processing4

Adding a Caret Position Indicator

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Dominant language
Java
Stars
494
Forks
183
Avg merge
4h 39m
Merged PRs (30d)
3

Description

Relevant sub-area for this feature?

Core/Environment/Rendering

Feature description

I think it would be beneficial to have a caret position indicator, similar to as seen in common text editors, for displaying the caret line and column. This may appear in the bottom right, next to the version number, as so:

Image

A user would have control over the visibility of the indicator in preferences. The default would be non-visible, as to not crowd the display. Preference may show as:

Image

Benefits

There are several benefits from having a caret indicator:

  1. In larger sketches, knowing the location of the caret may help users navigate more efficiently
  2. When debugging or collaborating, knowing the precise location in code removes ambiguity
  3. Reduces the need for 'counting characters' when selecting/copying/pasting/deleting code
Possible challenges

Possible challenges may revolve around adding support for different languages in the preferences window.

Additional context

No response

Would you like to work on the issue?

Yes. I already have some working code for this feature, which can be ironed out.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating the Core/Environment/Rendering area and the preferences window, then review the issue author's existing working code. The feature is done when the editor shows the caret line and column near the version number, remains hidden by default, and can be enabled or disabled in preferences.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java
Domain
design, desktop
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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