Add a way to properly select a word and expand that selection (like expand_selection in Sublime Text)

[stiang]

I think Zed really needs a better way to select a word, and (even better) expand that selection smartly, and (optimally) even be able to expand the selection to the larger syntax node after that.

Below is Sublime’s expand_selection in action. Note how the underscored part is considered one word and hyphened words are considered connected, but smartly expanded. Also, note how it doesn’t continue to expand the selection beyond the word boundary (would be even better if it did). Finally, note how the cursor is positioned at the end of the selected part.

sublime_text_expand_selection.mov

VSCode and derivatives also support this very similarly to how Sublime does it (I can’t remember the command off the top of my head).

Zed has Editor::select_larger_syntax_node, but this is an entirely different thing, as far as I can tell:

• If invoked on a word in a quoted string, it selects the entire string
• If invoked between o and d in :mode in an Elixir file, it includes the :
• The cursor is positioned at the start of the selected part

One can see how both approaches can have merit, but being fundamentally unable to select the current word (without punctuation, and regardless of context (like a quoted string)) feels like a real shortcoming for Zed. I use this all the time while editing, it’s one of my most used shortcuts (bound to ctrl-w).

The ideal solution, in my mind, would have the following characteristics:

• Be a new command, like Editor::expand_selection
• Initially select the word under the cursor, respecting per-language settings for word boundaries (ie. should underscores and hyphens count as boundaries?)
• Expand the selection smartly if a selection is already active, first across soft word boundaries like underscores and hyphens, then up to the surrounding syntax node (quoted string etc. - at this point it would basically behave like Editor::select_larger_syntax_node)

But I would be super-happy to just get a very naive version initially, that simply selected the word under the cursor (excluding punctuation) and placed the cursor at the end - nothing else. That would already be a huge improvement.

Am I the only one missing this?