editor: Preserve the selection granularity when extending a selection (#39759)

Tim Vermeulen and Lukas Wirth created 

Currently when extending a selection using shift-click, the selection
granularity (or `SelectMode`) is based on the click count when extending
the selection, not on the click count of the initial selection. For
example, selecting a word with double-click followed by shift-click uses
a character granularity:


https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/13c78bb9-9c31-45d4-97de-99c30c7425a7

This PR changes this behavior to be more in line with other editors that
I'm familiar with by preserving the granularity of the initial selection
(unless the extension has a higher click count, i.e. the behavior of a
single click selection by a shift-double-click extension is unchanged):


https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/92e69e95-7ea2-4f76-b0a4-e4b9efa1947b

Release Notes:

- Extending a selection using shift-click now preserves the
character/word/line granularity of the initial selection

---------

Co-authored-by: Lukas Wirth <lukas@zed.dev>

Change summary

crates/editor/src/editor.rs                | 42 +++++++++--
crates/editor/src/editor_tests.rs          | 87 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
crates/editor/src/element.rs               |  1 
crates/editor/src/selections_collection.rs | 20 +++++
4 files changed, 142 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

Detailed changes

crates/editor/src/editor.rs 🔗 

@@ -3514,26 +3514,46 @@ impl Editor {
     ) {
         let display_map = self.display_map.update(cx, |map, cx| map.snapshot(cx));
         let tail = self.selections.newest::<usize>(cx).tail();
+        let click_count = click_count.max(match self.selections.select_mode() {
+            SelectMode::Character => 1,
+            SelectMode::Word(_) => 2,
+            SelectMode::Line(_) => 3,
+            SelectMode::All => 4,
+        });
         self.begin_selection(position, false, click_count, window, cx);
 
-        let position = position.to_offset(&display_map, Bias::Left);
         let tail_anchor = display_map.buffer_snapshot().anchor_before(tail);
 
+        let current_selection = match self.selections.select_mode() {
+            SelectMode::Character | SelectMode::All => tail_anchor..tail_anchor,
+            SelectMode::Word(range) | SelectMode::Line(range) => range.clone(),
+        };
+
         let mut pending_selection = self
             .selections
             .pending_anchor()
             .cloned()
             .expect("extend_selection not called with pending selection");
-        if position >= tail {
-            pending_selection.start = tail_anchor;
-        } else {
-            pending_selection.end = tail_anchor;
+
+        if pending_selection
+            .start
+            .cmp(&current_selection.start, display_map.buffer_snapshot())
+            == Ordering::Greater
+        {
+            pending_selection.start = current_selection.start;
+        }
+        if pending_selection
+            .end
+            .cmp(&current_selection.end, display_map.buffer_snapshot())
+            == Ordering::Less
+        {
+            pending_selection.end = current_selection.end;
             pending_selection.reversed = true;
         }
 
         let mut pending_mode = self.selections.pending_mode().unwrap();
         match &mut pending_mode {
-            SelectMode::Word(range) | SelectMode::Line(range) => *range = tail_anchor..tail_anchor,
+            SelectMode::Word(range) | SelectMode::Line(range) => *range = current_selection,
             _ => {}
         }
 
@@ -3544,7 +3564,8 @@ impl Editor {
         };
 
         self.change_selections(effects, window, cx, |s| {
-            s.set_pending(pending_selection.clone(), pending_mode)
+            s.set_pending(pending_selection.clone(), pending_mode);
+            s.set_is_extending(true);
         });
     }
 
@@ -3813,11 +3834,16 @@ impl Editor {
 
     fn end_selection(&mut self, window: &mut Window, cx: &mut Context<Self>) {
         self.columnar_selection_state.take();
-        if self.selections.pending_anchor().is_some() {
+        if let Some(pending_mode) = self.selections.pending_mode() {
             let selections = self.selections.all::<usize>(cx);
             self.change_selections(SelectionEffects::no_scroll(), window, cx, |s| {
                 s.select(selections);
                 s.clear_pending();
+                if s.is_extending() {
+                    s.set_is_extending(false);
+                } else {
+                    s.set_select_mode(pending_mode);
+                }
             });
         }
     }

crates/editor/src/editor_tests.rs 🔗 

@@ -619,6 +619,93 @@ fn test_movement_actions_with_pending_selection(cx: &mut TestAppContext) {
     });
 }
 
+#[gpui::test]
+fn test_extending_selection(cx: &mut TestAppContext) {
+    init_test(cx, |_| {});
+
+    let editor = cx.add_window(|window, cx| {
+        let buffer = MultiBuffer::build_simple("aaa bbb ccc ddd eee", cx);
+        build_editor(buffer, window, cx)
+    });
+
+    _ = editor.update(cx, |editor, window, cx| {
+        editor.begin_selection(DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 5), false, 1, window, cx);
+        editor.end_selection(window, cx);
+        assert_eq!(
+            editor.selections.display_ranges(cx),
+            [DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 5)..DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 5)]
+        );
+
+        editor.extend_selection(DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 10), 1, window, cx);
+        editor.end_selection(window, cx);
+        assert_eq!(
+            editor.selections.display_ranges(cx),
+            [DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 5)..DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 10)]
+        );
+
+        editor.extend_selection(DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 10), 1, window, cx);
+        editor.end_selection(window, cx);
+        editor.extend_selection(DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 10), 2, window, cx);
+        assert_eq!(
+            editor.selections.display_ranges(cx),
+            [DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 5)..DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 11)]
+        );
+
+        editor.update_selection(
+            DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 1),
+            0,
+            gpui::Point::<f32>::default(),
+            window,
+            cx,
+        );
+        editor.end_selection(window, cx);
+        assert_eq!(
+            editor.selections.display_ranges(cx),
+            [DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 5)..DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 0)]
+        );
+
+        editor.begin_selection(DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 5), true, 1, window, cx);
+        editor.end_selection(window, cx);
+        editor.begin_selection(DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 5), true, 2, window, cx);
+        editor.end_selection(window, cx);
+        assert_eq!(
+            editor.selections.display_ranges(cx),
+            [DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 4)..DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 7)]
+        );
+
+        editor.extend_selection(DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 10), 1, window, cx);
+        assert_eq!(
+            editor.selections.display_ranges(cx),
+            [DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 4)..DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 11)]
+        );
+
+        editor.update_selection(
+            DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 6),
+            0,
+            gpui::Point::<f32>::default(),
+            window,
+            cx,
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            editor.selections.display_ranges(cx),
+            [DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 4)..DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 7)]
+        );
+
+        editor.update_selection(
+            DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 1),
+            0,
+            gpui::Point::<f32>::default(),
+            window,
+            cx,
+        );
+        editor.end_selection(window, cx);
+        assert_eq!(
+            editor.selections.display_ranges(cx),
+            [DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 7)..DisplayPoint::new(DisplayRow(0), 0)]
+        );
+    });
+}
+
 #[gpui::test]
 fn test_clone(cx: &mut TestAppContext) {
     init_test(cx, |_| {});

crates/editor/src/element.rs 🔗 

@@ -681,6 +681,7 @@ impl EditorElement {
             .drag_and_drop_selection
             .enabled
             && click_count == 1
+            && !modifiers.shift
         {
             let newest_anchor = editor.selections.newest_anchor();
             let snapshot = editor.snapshot(window, cx);

crates/editor/src/selections_collection.rs 🔗 

@@ -35,6 +35,8 @@ pub struct SelectionsCollection {
     disjoint: Arc<[Selection<Anchor>]>,
     /// A pending selection, such as when the mouse is being dragged
     pending: Option<PendingSelection>,
+    select_mode: SelectMode,
+    is_extending: bool,
 }
 
 impl SelectionsCollection {
@@ -55,6 +57,8 @@ impl SelectionsCollection {
                 },
                 mode: SelectMode::Character,
             }),
+            select_mode: SelectMode::Character,
+            is_extending: false,
         }
     }
 
@@ -456,6 +460,22 @@ impl SelectionsCollection {
     pub fn set_line_mode(&mut self, line_mode: bool) {
         self.line_mode = line_mode;
     }
+
+    pub fn select_mode(&self) -> &SelectMode {
+        &self.select_mode
+    }
+
+    pub fn set_select_mode(&mut self, select_mode: SelectMode) {
+        self.select_mode = select_mode;
+    }
+
+    pub fn is_extending(&self) -> bool {
+        self.is_extending
+    }
+
+    pub fn set_is_extending(&mut self, is_extending: bool) {
+        self.is_extending = is_extending;
+    }
 }
 
 pub struct MutableSelectionsCollection<'a> {