Inconsistent Cursor behavior

paul1149 · 2016-06-23 01:47:00

Hi folks,

I'm on the new Linux Lite 3.0, which uses XFCE 4. I had this problem with the previous version, but waited in hopes the upgrade would solve it, but it hasn't.

The problem I have is inconsistent cursor behavior. I spend a lot of time editing in LibreOffice, Geany text editor, or composing in the Slimjet (Chromium) browser. In all these programs the text cursor does the following:

With Ctrl-Right, the cursor will jump from the beginning of a word to the end of the same word. With the next press of Ctrl-Right, it will jump from the end of that word to the end of the word to the right.

With Ctrl-Left, it does the same thing in reverse. It first jumps to the opposite end of the initial word, thereafter it jumps to the end of the next word.

This inconsistency leaves a space to be dealt with after the first press. So if you're trying to delete a word, you will have to press once for the word, and again for the space on the opposite side of the word.

Something similar happens with Ctrl-Delete and Ctrl-Backspace. And with Ctrl-Delete in LibreOffice, if you are before the space before a word, the first press will take out the word to the right with both its preceding and following spaces, leaving no space left between remaining words. This is actually inconsistent with the previously described inconsistent behavior, but maybe LO is a factor here.

It doesn't sound like much writing it out here, but in practice these actions are very ungainly. You have to concentrate to make sure you get all the spaces and also don't delete too much. What should have a graceful flow to it is unnatural.

The solution is, I believe, to always move the cursor to the corresponding point in the next word, which means the space adjoining the initial word will be included. I'm not clear on why this would ever have been deviated from, as it seems pretty straightforward, unless I'm missing something.

Be well,
Paul

ozjd · 2016-06-23 07:06:04

I don't see that this has anything to do with Xfce but I don't see the behaviour you see. Ctrl + Right always jumps to the start of the next word in Libreoffice. In Chrome it jumps to the end of each word. I believe this behaviour is under the control of the applications and not the desktop.

BTW I'm using LO 5.0.6 and Xfce 4.12 on Korora (which is Fedora).

paul1149 · 2016-06-23 12:12:50

Thanks for you input. This has been happening over a few LO versions - I'm now up to 5.1.3.2, and many Slimjet versions. Geany is new to me, but Ctrl-Right has done the same thing in LeafPad all along. And those LO versions don't do this on Windows, which is why I thought it might be a Linux problem. I did ask at the Linux Lite forum but got no reply.

MountainDewManiac · 2016-06-25 06:14:36

paul1149 wrote:

I'm on the new Linux Lite 3.0, which uses XFCE 4.

Do you mean Xfce 4.12? Or 4.10? Xfce 4 was released... almost 13 years ago, I think.

Regards,
MDM

paul1149 · 2016-06-25 14:13:03

Most of the components are 4.12.0-3 or 4.12.0-2.

Thanks,
Paul

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#1 2016-06-23 01:47:00

Inconsistent Cursor behavior

#2 2016-06-23 07:06:04

Re: Inconsistent Cursor behavior

#3 2016-06-23 12:12:50

Re: Inconsistent Cursor behavior

#4 2016-06-25 06:14:36

Re: Inconsistent Cursor behavior

#5 2016-06-25 14:13:03

Re: Inconsistent Cursor behavior

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