IDLE: Double click text in editor to select more meaningful area #94525

Feature or enhancement

• Highlight the selected word.
• Click the boundaries of string to select the whole string. (by using pre-tagged TAG in tk.Text)
• Quick select the whole comments by click the comment mark (# sign).
• Quick select the matched parentheses, including in comments.
• Select a row by double-click the end of line.
• Multi-line select by click the colon mark or click the space in indent.
• Select escape character (\n, \xhh, \uxxxx, …).
• …

Pitch

In the original IDLE, the logic that controlled the double-click selected text area was in file "~\tcl\tk8.6\text.tcl".

It is equivalent to select a regular expression that equal with "\w+" or "\W+". It help us double-click to select a whole parameter. It is better than nothing. But in my solution, it can do better.

Such as s.split('\n')[:ln], tk's auto selection will select ')[: and ('\, but this seems does not benefit to editing.

In my solution, I can double-click to select ('\n'), '\n', \n, and [:ln] (these were 3 types of match mode). I think this will help developers copy or cut code for what they want much more easier.

Notable things

1. Considering that sometimes I want to copy text with brackets from comment text, So I use the text rule to match the bracket pairs. Unexpected selection may occur when existing escape characters.

2. Highlighting the selected word will cause difference user experience at interface. Maybe not everyone like this feature. Do you have any suggestions?

Previous discussion

Discuss at: https://discuss.python.org/t/i-made-some-improvement-for-idle-can-i-contribute-to-idlelib-library-in-python-project

Usage: https://github.com/znsoooo/IDLE-Advance

Implementation: https://github.com/znsoooo/IDLE-Advance/blob/master/idlealib/SmartSelect.py

Linked PRs

• gh-94525: Double left click to smart select meaningful selection #145386