4 ms·

I have rarely ever seen a problem and thought to myself I need multiple cursors. I admit it's useful for data wrangling but programming? What are people using

I have rarely ever seen a problem and thought to myself I need multiple cursors. I admit it's useful for data wrangling but programming? What are people using it for? I would love to see some real world usage.

rk06 10mo ago
multiple cursor is basic editor 101. programmer' text editor need to have it as bare minimum. otherwise, i would have to go to sublime or vscode for text editing and then I will wonder why should I bother with this editor.
- cake-rusk 10mo ago
  Yes I get that its a basic requirement for some people. I am asking why.
  - enricozb 10mo ago
    Today's usage from what edits I can recall: - I wanted to edit the visibility (pub -> pub(crate)) of most but not all functions in a class. - I changed a macro to not require commas in a list of items it took in as input. - I changed a function to deal with utf-8 codepoints instead of bytes, so I wanted to rename all uses of "byte" to "char". Basically, localized find and replace, with a bit of flexibility.
    - cake-rusk 10mo ago
      Got it. Thanks for sharing.
  - az09mugen 10mo ago
    A use case I have also is the creation of a switch case from a list of enums
    - cake-rusk 10mo ago
      Nice one!
judahcr 10mo ago
I use multi-cursor editing daily. It’s very useful for aligning code, quick name changes, joining/expanding to multiple lines, etc. Works best when paired with a "duplicate cursor at next match" keybind.
- cake-rusk 10mo ago
  Find and replace does all of this, right?
  - viralsink 10mo ago
    Multi cursor edits feel nice during flow state, they let your brain stay in "edit" mode. However I only use them for edits of around 20-30 lines at a maximum. Another use case for me is extracting interesting information from debug logs, where I don't want to think of a regex and the lines are similar enough.
  - Neywiny 10mo ago
    I guess if you select the block and can tell it to only replace within that block, yes. As far as I know VSCode/Theia don't allow that. It's either click replace 20 times, copy/paste to a new file and replace all that way, or a quick multi cursor. I prefer the multi cursor. Especially when the language servers glitch out and don't let me rename the symbol gracefully, but there are many other use cases like the alignment as they mentioned.
    - cake-rusk 10mo ago
      VSCode can replace within a selected block. Though it takes an extra click. I see you point.
MoonZ 10mo ago
Extracting log entries from large files for troubleshooting, mass editing, mass formatting... This missing feature is the only reason I wasn't able to get far with the vim family: I didn't find a close enough way to do the same tasks as efficiently.
Bjartr 10mo ago
I'm curious too. I find it an occasionally useful feature, but how often I use it goes down as my ability to construct better find-replace/apply-action regex goes up.
blue_pants 10mo ago
This is one the uses https://streamable.com/r44sjd https://streamable.com/r44sjd

rk06 10mo ago

multiple cursor is basic editor 101. programmer' text editor need to have it as bare minimum. otherwise, i would have to go to sublime or vscode for text editing and then I will wonder why should I bother with this editor.

cake-rusk 10mo ago
Yes I get that its a basic requirement for some people. I am asking why.
- enricozb 10mo ago
  Today's usage from what edits I can recall: - I wanted to edit the visibility (pub -> pub(crate)) of most but not all functions in a class. - I changed a macro to not require commas in a list of items it took in as input. - I changed a function to deal with utf-8 codepoints instead of bytes, so I wanted to rename all uses of "byte" to "char". Basically, localized find and replace, with a bit of flexibility.
  - cake-rusk 10mo ago
    Got it. Thanks for sharing.
- az09mugen 10mo ago
  A use case I have also is the creation of a switch case from a list of enums
  - cake-rusk 10mo ago
    Nice one!

judahcr 10mo ago

I use multi-cursor editing daily. It’s very useful for aligning code, quick name changes, joining/expanding to multiple lines, etc. Works best when paired with a "duplicate cursor at next match" keybind.

cake-rusk 10mo ago
Find and replace does all of this, right?
- viralsink 10mo ago
  Multi cursor edits feel nice during flow state, they let your brain stay in "edit" mode. However I only use them for edits of around 20-30 lines at a maximum. Another use case for me is extracting interesting information from debug logs, where I don't want to think of a regex and the lines are similar enough.
- Neywiny 10mo ago
  I guess if you select the block and can tell it to only replace within that block, yes. As far as I know VSCode/Theia don't allow that. It's either click replace 20 times, copy/paste to a new file and replace all that way, or a quick multi cursor. I prefer the multi cursor. Especially when the language servers glitch out and don't let me rename the symbol gracefully, but there are many other use cases like the alignment as they mentioned.
  - cake-rusk 10mo ago
    VSCode can replace within a selected block. Though it takes an extra click. I see you point.

MoonZ 10mo ago

Extracting log entries from large files for troubleshooting, mass editing, mass formatting... This missing feature is the only reason I wasn't able to get far with the vim family: I didn't find a close enough way to do the same tasks as efficiently.

Bjartr 10mo ago

I'm curious too. I find it an occasionally useful feature, but how often I use it goes down as my ability to construct better find-replace/apply-action regex goes up.

blue_pants 10mo ago

This is one the uses https://streamable.com/r44sjd https://streamable.com/r44sjd