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Glass provides a comprehensive set of code editing features designed for efficiency and productivity. From intelligent multi-cursor support to advanced text manipulation, Glass equips you with the tools needed for modern software development.

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Multi-Cursor Editing

Glass supports sophisticated multi-cursor editing, allowing you to edit multiple locations simultaneously.
1

Select Next Occurrence

Use SelectNext to find and select the next occurrence of your current selection. This is perfect for quickly renaming variables or making bulk edits.
// From crates/editor/src/actions.rs:9
pub struct SelectNext {
    pub replace_newest: bool,
}
2

Select Previous Occurrence

Use SelectPrevious to select the previous occurrence, giving you bidirectional control over your selections.
3

Multiple Independent Cursors

Add cursors at arbitrary positions to edit multiple locations that don’t necessarily match a pattern.

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Line Operations

Glass offers precise control over line-level text manipulation.

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Moving Within Lines

The MoveToBeginningOfLine action supports smart navigation:
pub struct MoveToBeginningOfLine {
    pub stop_at_soft_wraps: bool,
    pub stop_at_indent: bool,
}
  • stop_at_soft_wraps: Respects soft-wrapped lines
  • stop_at_indent: First stop at indentation, then at the actual beginning

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Selecting and Deleting

Glass provides corresponding selection and deletion operations:
  • SelectToBeginningOfLine / SelectToEndOfLine - Extend selections
  • DeleteToBeginningOfLine / DeleteToEndOfLine - Remove text efficiently
  • CutToEndOfLine - Cut text from cursor to end of line
All line operations respect the editor’s soft wrap settings, ensuring natural editing behavior even with long lines.

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Word and Subword Navigation

Glass distinguishes between words and subwords, supporting both programming conventions like camelCase and snake_case.

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Word Operations

// Delete operations support fine-grained control
pub struct DeleteToNextWordEnd {
    pub ignore_newlines: bool,
    pub ignore_brackets: bool,
}
Available word operations:
  • DeleteToNextWordEnd / DeleteToPreviousWordStart
  • DeleteToNextSubwordEnd / DeleteToPreviousSubwordStart
Use subword operations when working with camelCase or PascalCase identifiers to navigate and edit more precisely.

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Code Manipulation

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Comments

Toggle comments with fine-grained control: 
pub struct ToggleComments {
    pub advance_downwards: bool,
    pub ignore_indent: bool,
}
  • advance_downwards: Move cursor down after toggling
  • ignore_indent: Don’t adjust comment position based on indentation

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Code Folding

Collapse code blocks to focus on what matters:
  • FoldAtLevel(u32) - Fold all blocks at a specific indentation level
  • Useful for getting a high-level view of large files

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Page Navigation

Move through your code efficiently: 
pub struct MovePageUp {
    pub center_cursor: bool,
}

pub struct MovePageDown {
    pub center_cursor: bool,
}
When center_cursor is true, the cursor is centered vertically after the page movement, maintaining visual context.

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Movement System

Glass’s movement module provides sophisticated navigation that accounts for:
  • Soft wraps: Navigate naturally through wrapped lines
  • Variable-width characters: Proper handling of Unicode and special characters
  • Display vs. buffer coordinates: Consistent behavior with folds and inlays
// From crates/editor/src/movement.rs
pub struct TextLayoutDetails {
    pub text_system: Arc<WindowTextSystem>,
    pub editor_style: EditorStyle,
    pub rem_size: Pixels,
    pub scroll_anchor: SharedScrollAnchor,
    pub visible_rows: Option<f64>,
    pub vertical_scroll_margin: ScrollOffset,
}
Glass’s movement system ensures that navigation feels natural regardless of how your code is displayed, whether folded, wrapped, or decorated with inlays.

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Advanced Text Selection

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Extending Selections by Lines

Precisely control your selection scope: 
pub struct SelectUpByLines {
    pub lines: u32,
}

pub struct SelectDownByLines {
    pub lines: u32,
}
These actions allow you to expand selections by a specific number of lines, perfect for quick block selections.

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Excerpt Expansion

When working with excerpted views (like search results), expand context as needed:
  • ExpandExcerpts - Expand all excerpts
  • ExpandExcerptsUp - Expand above current position
  • ExpandExcerptsDown - Expand below current position

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Code Context

The editor maintains rich context about your code:
  • Syntax-aware movement: Understands brackets, words, and language structure
  • Bracket matching: Automatic highlighting of matching brackets
  • Indent guides: Visual feedback for code structure
  • Inlay hints: Inline type hints and parameter names from LSP
The editor’s display map system (crates/editor/src/display_map.rs) manages the transformation between buffer content and what you see on screen, handling folds, wraps, inlays, and more.

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Best Practices

  1. Use multi-cursor editing for repetitive changes instead of find-and-replace
  2. Leverage subword navigation when working with camelCase or snake_case
  3. Combine selections with actions - many operations work on all active selections
  4. Fold code strategically to maintain context while focusing on specific areas
  5. Use soft wraps for better visibility of long lines without manual line breaks
  • Navigation - Go to definition, find references, and symbol navigation
  • Git Integration - View diffs and blame information inline
  • Testing - Run tasks and tests from your editor

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