Add support for left/right navigation of entire pipeline stages

[rkeithhill]

Say I have this command with the cursor the location highlighted:

C:> Get-Process | Where Handles -gt >><< 500 | Format-Table ProcessName,Handles

We have LeftArrow/RightArrow to move a char at a time and Ctrl+Left/RightArrow to jump a word at a time. Considering the fundamental pipeline stages nature of PowerShell, it would be handy to be able to jump backward and forward through the pipeline stages using say Ctrl+Shift+Left/RightArrow. Pressing Ctrl+Shift+LeftArrow in the above example should put the cursor here:

C:> Get-Process | >>W<<here Handles -gt 500 | Format-Table ProcessName,Handles

Pressing the same key binding again would put it here:

C:> >>G<<et-Process | Where Handles -gt 500 | Format-Table ProcessName,Handles

Then pressing Ctrl+Shift+RightArrow twice would put it here:

C:> Get-Process | Where Handles -gt 500 | >>F<<ormat-Table ProcessName,Handles

[lzybkr]

Emacs mode will have a binding to move to the next/previous character, e.g. Ctrl+],| would move to the next | and Alt+Ctrl+],| would move to the previous |.

With this capability, I'm not sure it's worth adding something special for pipes.

[rkeithhill]

I think cmd users need bells and whistles like this but a more "Windows" friendly key-binding for this would be nice. Maybe Alt+Left/RightArrow,|

[lzybkr]

F3/Shift+F3 roughly match Visual Studio. Give it a try and see how it feels. 933cda8

[rkeithhill]

Cool. Thanks! BTW is there a way I can use Set-PSReadlineKeyhander and -Scriptblock to configure say a Ctrl+BackslashKey to do a F3 with arg '|' and Ctrl+Shift+BackslashKey to do a Shift+F3 with arg '|'? That would be more smooth to navigate quickly around a longer one-liner. Having to reach up to F3 and press another key combo (shift+\ for |) isn't as smooth (or quick). I know, first world problems. :-)

What I have isn't working:

Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+Oem102 `
                         -BriefDescription SearchPipeChar `
                         -LongDescription "Searches forward for the next pipeline character" `
                         -ScriptBlock {
   param($key, $arg)
   #Write-Host "SearchPipeChar: $key and $arg"
   [PSConsoleUtilities.PSConsoleReadLine]::CharacterSearch($key, '|')
}

I assume I need to use Oem102 (backslash key which is also home to the pipe character)?

What would be real slick is to have something like VS's inline find - Ctrl+F brings up a character mode (ala demo mode) to have use enter text, press F3 and Shift+F3 for forward/backward matches and then some key to dismiss the UI (esc?). :-)

Keith

Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2013 13:14:17 -0800
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
CC: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [PSReadLine] Add support for left/right navigation of entire pipeline stages (#22)

F3/Shift+F3 roughly match Visual Studio. Give it a try and see how it feels. 933cda8

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[rkeithhill]

Hmm, thought this would get me closer but no:

Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key Ctrl+P `
                         -BriefDescription SearchPipeChar `
                         -LongDescription "Searches forward for the next pipeline character" `
                         -ScriptBlock {
   param($key, $arg)

   [PSConsoleUtilities.PSConsoleReadLine]::CharacterSearch($key, $arg)
   [PSConsoleUtilities.PSConsoleReadLine]::Insert("|")
}

[lzybkr]

With a trivial change to CharacterSearch, your first example will work. Until I make that change, instead of using CharacterSearch, you can combine GetBufferState and SetCursorPosition with your own string searching. I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader - it should be pretty simple.

As for determining what key to use - I usually start with something like:
$k = [Console]::ReadKey($true)
then type the key I want to bind - that tells me which Oem* character I need. Note that I'm investigating improving the string->key conversion because it's really too hard right now, but I have to learn more about keyboard layouts and whatnot before we'll see any changes.

[rkeithhill]

Thanks. WRT string->key conversion, it would be sweet to use Demo mode to determine what argument to provide to -Chord.

Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2013 21:08:49 -0800
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
CC: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [PSReadLine] Add support for left/right navigation of entire pipeline stages (#22)

With a trivial change to CharacterSearch, your first example will work. Until I make that change, instead of using CharacterSearch, you can combine GetBufferState and SetCursorPosition with your own string searching. I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader - it should be pretty simple.

As for determining what key to use - I usually start with something like:

$k = [Console]::ReadKey($true)

then type the key I want to bind - that tells me which Oem* character I need. Note that I'm investigating improving the string->key conversion because it's really too hard right now, but I have to learn more about keyboard layouts and whatnot before we'll see any changes.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[rkeithhill]

Got this to work:

Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+Oem5 `
                         -BriefDescription SearchPipeChar `
                         -LongDescription "Searches forward for the next pipeline character" `
                         -ScriptBlock {
    param($key, $arg)

    $line = $null
    $cursor = $null
    [PSConsoleUtilities.PSConsoleReadline]::GetBufferState([ref]$line, [ref]$cursor)

    if (($cursor + 1) -gt $line.Length) { return }
    $ndx = $line.IndexOf('|', $cursor+1)
    if ($ndx -ne -1) {
        [PSConsoleUtilities.PSConsoleReadline]::SetCursorPosition($ndx)
    }
}
Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+Shift+Oem5 `
                         -BriefDescription SearchPipeChar `
                         -LongDescription "Searches forward for the next pipeline character" `
                         -ScriptBlock {
    param($key, $arg)

    $line = $null
    $cursor = $null
    [PSConsoleUtilities.PSConsoleReadline]::GetBufferState([ref]$line, [ref]$cursor)

    if (($cursor - 1) -lt 0) { return }
    $ndx = $line.LastIndexOf('|', $cursor-1)
    if ($ndx -ne -1) {
        [PSConsoleUtilities.PSConsoleReadline]::SetCursorPosition($ndx)
    }
}

[lzybkr]

Now that I convinced you to write it yourself, I added support to CharacterSearch so you original example will work. c0059eb

[rkeithhill]

Cool. I look forward to the next "latest" release.