Description Tod Creasey 2003-07-03 08:24:40 EDT

Text selection: the “Windows standard selection mechanism” that requires users 
to hold a modifier key like shift while navigating is troublesome for screen 
reader users. The biggest problem is the blind user cannot see their target 
ahead of them. For instance, the blind user may want to select from the cursor 
to the next right brace. 

It is much much faster if they can use a search function to move to that right 
brace even if it is only a few lines away. This can be resolved with the 
following:
 a. An editor configuration option for persistent selection. When this option 
is on, selected text stays selected until the command for clearing the 
selection is used. This could have great benefit for all users as functions 
like search/replace could be enhanced to operate on the selected area and one 
could make multiple changes within the same selected area.
 b. A command to clear persistent selection.
 c. A command to set a beginning of selection mark. If text is already 
selected and the user presses this, the selected area would expand or shrink 
according to the position of the cursor relative to the previous beginning of 
selection.
 d. A command to set an end of selection mark. If text is already selected and 
the user presses this, the selected area would expand or shrink according to 
the position of the cursor relative to the previous end of selection.
 e. A command to move the cursor to the current beginning of selection.
 f. A command to move the cursor to the current end of selection.
 g. Assumption: all above would be inherited by all editors including java 
editor.