Vim like alignment/wrap of selected lines across multiple paragraphs

[ipochi]

Below is the screenshot of original document and then it is followed by a screenshot of wrapping of the selected lines
by vim and then helix.

Consider the following text as apart of a larger document and the user has selected the following lines of text.

Original:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Fusce mollis mi sed malesuada posuere. Donec faucibus eros vitae tortor iaculis, eget sollicitudin ex aliquam abouk
Nullam malesuada ante sed ullamcorper commodo. Vivamus consequat purus ut metus interdum condimentums.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Fusce mollis mi sed malesuada posuere. Donec faucibus eros vitae tortor iaculis, eget sollicitudin ex aliquam abouk
Nullam malesuada ante sed ullamcorper commodo. Vivamus consequat purus ut metus interdum condimentums.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Fusce mollis mi sed malesuada posuere. Donec faucibus eros vitae tortor iaculis, eget sollicitudin ex aliquam abouk
Nullam malesuada ante sed ullamcorper commodo. Vivamus consequat purus ut metus interdum condimentums.

Text wrapped with vim (Commands - Select lines and gw, text width set at 100)

Text wrapped with Helix (command :reflow , text width set at 100)

Not sure if reflow is the correct command here, but I'd like to get a similar behavior of wrapping text across multiple paragraphs like vim, which in my opinion is the correct wrapping.

[CptPotato]

I think the separation of paragraphs should be retained, so I guess this would be a nice enhancement?

For a workaround you can do this:

• select the text
• split your selection into paragraphs
  • Alts
  • _ (gets rid of whitespace selections)
  • mip
• :reflow

[ipochi]

@CptPotato

Thank you for the workaround. Its a handful tbh.

Would love it if somehow this is the default behavior without going through all those keystrokes.

[ipochi]

For others , an explanation about the keystrokes

Alt-s - Split selection on newlines
Alt-x - Shrink selection to line bounds (line-wise selection)
mip - Match mode, Select inside textobject, Match inside paragraph

@CptPotato

Question: How did you have the insight to construct this combination ? asking coz if I have to find out something else that needs more than a few combinations, how should I go about thinking ?

On another note, I would like some help with these please:

Select current line with x and keep pressing x for selecting downward lines, but what needs to be pressed if I have to select lines in the upward direction from the cursor?

Shift - c for multiple cursors, most of the time I accidentally add one more cursor. I then press , to discard all and begin again. How do I revert an additional cursor ?

[CptPotato]

Oops I had a custom keybind (Alt-x) in the workaround I suggested, I updated my last comment with the correct keys.

Question: How did you have the insight to construct this combination ? asking coz if I have to find out something else that needs more than a few combinations, how should I go about thinking ?

Mostly playing around with movements I already knew to see if I can get it to work. Also the command search is very helpful (Space?).

Select current line with x and keep pressing x for selecting downward lines, but what needs to be pressed if I have to select lines in the upward direction from the cursor?

I think by default x keeps the direction of your selection. So if you select one line up manually, pressing x should select upwards.

[ipochi]

Oops I had a custom keybind (Alt-x) in the workaround I suggested, I updated my last comment with the correct keys.

Question: How did you have the insight to construct this combination ? asking coz if I have to find out something else that needs more than a few combinations, how should I go about thinking ?

Mostly playing around with movements I already knew to see if I can get it to work. Also the command search is very helpful (Space?).

Select current line with x and keep pressing x for selecting downward lines, but what needs to be pressed if I have to select lines in the upward direction from the cursor?

I think by default x keeps the direction of your selection. So if you select one line up manually, pressing x should select upwards.

xxxx... keeps selecting the lines downwards.

I mean is there another key combination that would start by selecting the line under the cursor and continue selecting the lines in upwards direction ?

[CptPotato]

xxxx... keeps selecting the lines downwards.

I mean is there another key combination that would start by selecting the line under the cursor and continue selecting the lines in upwards direction ?

You're looking for extend_line_above which isn't mapped to a key by default.

[ipochi]

xxxx... keeps selecting the lines downwards.
I mean is there another key combination that would start by selecting the line under the cursor and continue selecting the lines in upwards direction ?

You're looking for extend_line_above which isn't mapped to a key by default.

Thanks. thats exactly what I am looking for.

Shift - c for multiple cursors, most of the time I accidentally add one more cursor. 
I then press , to discard all and begin again. How do I revert an additional cursor ?

C , adds a new cursor below.
Alt-C , adds a new cursor above.

But I struggle to revert the last added cursor (doesn't matter which direction). Its like I wanted to have 5 additional cursors, but accidentally added 6 , I justnneed to undo the last addition of cursor

[CptPotato]

But I struggle to revert the last added cursor (doesn't matter which direction). Its like I wanted to have 5 additional cursors, but accidentally added 6 , I justnneed to undo the last addition of cursor

I don't think that's possible right now. There's a relevant issue, though: #1596

Edit: let's maybe move this over to a discussion if you have more questions, since this isn't really related to the issue anymore.

[gabydd]

You actually can remove a selection with Alt-, which will remove the last added selection as it will be the primary one unless you rotate your primary selection.

To reflow each paragraph seperately I would split each paragraph with S split selections with regex, then use the \n\n regex, then reflow. The current reflow uses https://docs.rs/textwrap/latest/textwrap/fn.refill.html which removes newlines as such it is not aware of paragraphs and at the moment seems to only really be designed for reflowing only one paragraph per selection

[gabydd]

ah this is a duplicate of #2419 see that for some more info