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Description of problem: The definition of a "word" selected by double-clicking now includes only contiguous alphanumerics. It used to be smarter. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): xterm-211-1.FC5 How reproducible: Annoyingly constant. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Pick a bit of text like xterm-211-1.FC5 and double click on it. 2. 3. Actual results: Only a fragment such as 211, or -, or 1 is highlighted instead of the entire filename. Expected results: Previously, the entire filename with punctuation was selected. Even when the item selected was a URL enclosed in <> brackets, the URL was selected. That is what's expected; that's what is useful. Additional info: This entire problem is due to an unfortunately included ! mark. In /usr/share/X11/app-defaults/XTerm a crucial line is commented out: ! Here is a pattern that is useful for double-clicking on a URL: !*charClass: 33:48,35:48,37-38:48,43-47:48,58:48,61:48,63-64:48,126:48 If the line defining *charClass is restored, double-clicking works again. Why someone chose to comment out this crucial definition in FC5 is unfathomable. Since this function is hopelessly obscure to most users, it is crucially important that the default behaviour be what works correctly. Please remove the villainous exclamation mark.
Actually, this is a hotly debated topic, with many people taking the opposite point of view to yours - they consider that uncommenting the example charClass definition was a regression - see: Bug 186170, Debian bug 348384 : http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=348384 . Prior to xterm-208, all xterm releases had no charClass definition or that charClass definition commented out - this has always been xterm's default legacy behaviour, which many users have come to rely on. This really is a matter of user preference . Yes, I agree that this feature is poorly understood by the average user and poorly documented. So I propose the following: o The default behaviour should be as it always was in pre xterm-208 releases: no charClass definition. o There should be a menu item and an X resource to easily enable the extended charClass definition - say something like 'vt100*smartSelection:1' or 'Smart Selection'. o These options should be better documented in the man-page. I'll look into implementing this in the next release, if the next upstream release does not do so .
I changed this in #209 (#211 is current, am working on #212): add a new selection feature: regular expressions, and new resources which specify what happens on multiple mouse clicks: on2Clicks, on3Clicks, on4Clicks and on5Clicks. revert the XTerm.ad change from patch #208 (Debian #348384).
OK, I can see there's more than enough room for controversy in specifiying a charClass, so I regret reopening this can of worms. It's impossible to add a single set of characters to the alphanumerics so that double-clicking will perfectly satisfy all users and all purposes. If your goal is to select full pathnames, you'd want: + , - . _ / but if you want to choose only the filename portion, you'd have to omit the / Both of these conflict with the best choice for selecting URLs: + , - . _ / ! # % & : = ? @ ~ The characters that would probably never be considered equivalent: " $ ' ( ) ; < > [ \ ] ^ ` { | } although I'm sure someone might have a preference for some of them. So, yes, keep the traditional behaviour as the default. This is well-documented by the table of the built-in charClass table in the man page (once you discover it, and read it). But please add more prominent examples of how and why one can use local extensions of the definition, and keep several possible examples, commented out, in the /usr/share/X11/app-defaults/XTerm file. Displaying the characters along with the cryptic code might help, eg ! Here is a pattern that is useful for double-clicking on a URL: ! This includes the characters ! # % & + , - . / : = ? @ ~ !*charClass: 33:48,35:48,37-38:48,43-47:48,58:48,61:48,63-64:48,126:48 Note that my examples above add the _ (underscore) character. Shouldn't that be included to allow selecting filenames and variable names that use it? See? - everyone's got their own opinion. :-)
The charClass definition is commented out in all current releases ( xterm-212-1.FC6, xterm-212-1.FC5, xterm-212-1.FC4 ). The commented out definitions work and make sense when uncommented. Closing as 'CURRENTRELEASE'.