Re: [PATCH] gdb/tui: add 'set tui mouse-events off' to restore mouse selection

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2023 16:42:58 -0800
> From: strager via Gdb-patches <gdb-patches@sourceware.org>
> 
> Rationale:
> I use the mouse with my terminal to select and copy text. In gdb, I use
> the mouse to select a function name to set a breakpoint, or a variable
> name to print, for example.
> 
> When gdb is compiled with ncurses mouse support, gdb's TUI mode
> intercepts mouse events. Left-clicking and dragging, which would
> normally select text, seems to do nothing. This means I cannot select
> text using my mouse anymore. This makes it harder to set breakpoints,
> print variables, etc.
> 
> Solution:
> I tried to fix this issue by editing the 'mousemask' call to only enable
> buttons 4 and 5. However, this still caused my terminal (gnome-terminal)
> to not allow text to be selected. The only way I could make it work is
> by calling 'mousemask (0, NULL);'. But doing so disables the mouse code
> entirely, which other people might want.
> 
> I therefore decided to make a setting in gdb called 'tui mouse-events'.
> If enabled (the default), the behavior is as it is now: terminal mouse
> events are given to gdb, disabling the terminal's default behavior.
> If disabled (opt-in), the behavior is as it was before the year 2020:
> terminal mouse events are not given to gdb, therefore the mouse can be
> used to select and copy text.

Thanks.

> --- gdb/NEWS
> +++ gdb/NEWS
> @@ -17,6 +17,13 @@ maintenance print record-instruction [ N ]
>    prints how GDB would undo the N-th previous instruction, and if N is
>    positive, it prints how GDB will redo the N-th following instruction.
> 
> +set tui mouse-events [on|off]
> +show tui mouse-events
> +  When on (default), the TUI will interpret mouse clicks (including
> scroll wheel
> +  presses), overwriting the terminal's default behavior (usually text
> +  selection). When off, the TUI will preserve the terminal's default behavior
> +  for mouse events.

Instead of talking about overriding the terminal's behavior, this text
should say that the mouse events are interpreted either by GDB or by
the terminal.

> +Set whether the TUI source window is displayed in ``compact'' form.
> +The default display uses more space for line numbers and starts the
> +source text at the next tab stop; the compact display uses only as
> +much space as is needed for the line numbers in the current file, and
> +only a single space to separate the line numbers from the source.

This part sounds unrelated?