[alganet]

The demo is impressive for something running on a browser.

    > Planned Features
    >
    >    ...
    >    Multi-cursor support
    >    ...

I can't live without that though. SublimeText spoiled me, my editing flow is heavily based on multiple cursors.

[SpartanJ]

Author here: I guess this is gonna be one of the most requested features. It will come sooner than later, but it's not a feature I use very often, that's probably the only reason it's not implemented yet.

[alganet]

I'll keep it on my watch list!

It already marks several of my editor checkboxes (LSP support, fast global search/replace, real time tree view, etc). I'll say it again, it looks very impressive.

[iddan]

More than just multi-cursor the workflows VSCode offers with them (selecting all occurrences, selecting the next occurrence) are vital for my work.

[pjerem]

Aren't those workflows operated by LSP Rename action rather than multi cursor ? Since Ecode supports LSP, if you only need to rename things, you should be good without multi cursor.

[panekj]

LSP only applies to programming languages and specific configuration files, it's useless when you edit files such as JSON/YAML/etc.

[makapuf]

indeed. LSP are for high latency, high impact, careful changes. multicursor edits (with sublime for me) are for those "replace all the str_something with string_something in the next 3 lines, quick"

[Kab1r]

There are LSP servers for YAML (and by extension JSON)

[vageli]

Could you expand on your use case? Are you writing the same thing across multiple lines? I've only gotten tripped up on multiple cursors when I somehow activate them.

[alganet]

My main use cases:

- Replacing variable and function names: I have Ctrl+D bound to "Mark Next Occurrence", which creates a multiple cursor and replicates the selection I have on my main cursor to the next following similar thing. Instead of changing a name and then search/replace it afterwards, I selectively mark the next occurrences within the scope I'm in and change them all at once.

- Editing multiple similar expressions: If I want to add a new parameter to a function, I can multi-select `existingParam,` (including the comma) and add the new parameter to multiple occurrences within a scope.

- Ctrl-based multi navigation: I use Ctrl + Arrow Keys to skip words a lot. In combination with multiple cursors, it allows each cursor to skip words individually. This is useful for the previous use case (editing parameters) when each parameter might have a different name (and therefore a different length).

- Several alignment and formatting things: This is hard to explain in text. I use it to align the ` = ` sign in repeated variable assignments, to manage indentation, etc.

I can do most of these things using other tools if needed (I did before multiple cursors). The parameter editing is often a vi "showcase" scenario, which I consider to be much more effective using mc than repeating actions or macros.

I don't place cursors with a mouse, I don't add cursors below or above or any other feature. Just "select the next occurrence" or "select all occurrences".

[SpartanJ]

Author here: This is interesting to me. I usually solve all the multi-cursor usage with a range based search and replace (that it's supported in ecode by selecting the range and Ctr/Cmd + F to search and replace over that range). I would like to see how it's used by other users to have a better idea on how it should behave a multi-cursor feature. If you know how to record a video of you editing in the way you explained it would be awesome to see it. Thanks

[joshstrange]

I use for things that I could do with find and replace (often requiring regex) but I find it faster/easier to just use multiple cursors. With multiple cursors I can convert a PHP array to JSON or JS very easily or take a list of params and turn it in to an object. I do this often when creating client-side TypeScript interfaces for the data the server is going to spit back at me. Example:

* I just select `public` on my first PHP class property

* Use multiple cursors to select all `public`'s that are before the properties I want (Normally by adding 1 selection at a time since I only want the props, not the public methods)

* Arrow over right 3 times (Now my cursor is right before the property names, after the `$`, this is PHP remember)

* Hold shift + control

* Arrow once more to the right (now the variable names are selected)

* Hit Cmd+c (copy all variable names)

* Open new IMyInterfaceDTO.ts file

* Type `export interface IMyInterfaceDTO { <cursor is here now> }`

* Paste in all my variables between the `{}`

* Select the new-line between each variable (I want a cursor before each variable name)

* Then add in `: string;` after each variable (string is the most common, I then manually change it to number/boolean/etc on the props that need it)

Done, now I have a TypeScript interface that matches my php class that gets turned into JSON.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about: https://cs.joshstrange.com/jlH4BnT3

Yes, I could accomplish the same thing with find and replace using a regex but this lets me see each step of the transformation and react easier. Maybe if I was a regex pro I'd feel differently but this method works really well for me and how my brain works. I know it's a lot of steps but I do it reflexively almost on autopilot verses having to stop and think about a regex.

[SpartanJ]

Awesome, it really helps me to visualize the usefulness of the feature. Thanks for taking the time to explain it.

[alganet]

Oh, I completely forgot about copying and pasting multiple cursors. I'm a hardcore user of that as well.

[alganet]

Sure can do!

Here it is: https://streamable.com/vwj0hs

I did three things there:

1. Replace the prefix of several variables from `$mock` to `$stub`

2. Added a prefix to all properties of the object `$r`, which left the camelCasing missing an uppercase letter, I selected that letter on all properties and used "Transform To Uppercase" action on VSCode to camelCase it properly back again.

3. Aligned some keys of two arrays. I selected them, placed some minimal spacing, then hit `Home` to align the cursors to indentation, then used `Ctrl+Delete` to trim the added spaces.

I'll try the range based search, I never used something like that and might like it.

[SpartanJ]

Thank you very much! Indeed it looks really useful. I hope I can implement it soon.

[seanw444]

This is also how I go about it in Doom Emacs. I guess either way solves the same problem, just differently.

[tiagod]

I cant speak for the commenter you replied to, but I find it great to transform data without any tooling.

As an example, if I have some tabular data, I can quickly turn it into JSON. Find-replace can also add a cursor to each result which is very helpful. Many other code/data transformation tasks are also made trivial with multiple cursors.

[Cort3z]

Also not author of original comment, but I use it for “stupid data transforms” all the time. Like formatting some stuff for a spreadsheet. I find it faster than writing a script most of the time