Insert-mode selections do not work

[tobia]

What did you do?

Select some text while in insert mode, for example with the mouse or Shift+arrow.

Then type something that operates on the text (that works in vanilla VS Code) for example ( to surround with parentheses.

What did you expect to happen?

I expected the editor to go into some sort of Insert-mode selection, more similar to regular VS Code selection that Vim modes, where I could type into the selection to replace it, or type (, [, {, ', ", backtick, etc. to surround the selection with pairs of characters.

What happened instead?

The editor went straight into Vim visual mode, where those keys don't do anything.

Technical details:

• VSCode Version: 1.3.1
• VsCodeVim Version: 0.1.3
• OS: Mac OS X

[rebornix]

@tobia just one stupid question, this is not related to Vim, right? It's all about how we reuse VS Code functionality in Insert mode?

[tobia]

@rebornix It's a condition where this extension removes functionality that was present in vanilla VS Code (modeless selection + keys to wrap in parentheses) without providing a replacement.

[tobia]

It also breaks snippets that have variable parts, unless I'm missing something.

[killercup]

I've also had problems with that. There are some vim plugins to surround a selection with braces/quotes/etc, and it would be great if there was a nice way to do this in vscode as well.

That being that, I'd also be happy with an option to not enter visual mode when selecting text with the cursor in insert mode. That may sound crazy, as there will be two different "select text" modes, but it would be a way to preserve more built-in vscode behaviour.

[rebornix]

@killercup your suggestion about two "select text" modes makes sense, we need to balance between Vim and VS Code somehow. I'll give it a thorough thinking about this thing then put more info here.

[tobia]

Vim itself has this mode, at least in some of its GUI flavors. It's entered by selecting with the mouse or with shift+arrows while in insert mode, is labeled -- (insert) VISUAL -- and it goes back to insert mode when exited or acted upon, not to normal mode.

See for example http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16203524/vims-insert-visual-mode

[everpointer]

I kind of have the same problem, when using snippets with variable label. When snippet tab stops at label variable, it turned into visual mode which broke the snippets operation.
I keep uninstalling vim extension just because I can't use snippet well.

[johnfn]

@everpointer ahh, that is definitely an issue. will definitely see if we can get snippets working for you!

[rebornix]

@johnfn I suppose microsoft/vscode#8093 covers this issue, right?

[johnfn]

Nah, this one requires no additional API changes.

Just ensure we're not in insert mode before going into visual mode when the selection changes.

[rebornix]

Then this fix would be easy.

[johnfn]

Yup! (Like most fixes 😉 )

[killercup]

Just fiddled with the code a bit to see if I can fix this (this prevents me from using this extension).

Adding this._vimState.currentMode !== ModeName.Insert && here prevents it from going to visual mode when selecting stuff in insert mode.

But: This does not do the "replace/wrap" thing vscode usually does. If I write "lorem ipsum", select the "ipsum" part and press "(", it just adds a "(" after the selected text (or "()" in some languages, e.g. JavaScript).

(Sorry, I don't have time to dig into this any deeper right now.)