Insertion-Cursor Motion

One way to set the insertion cursor is to point at a character with the mouse and click with the left button.

Use SELECT to click within an <identifier> placeholder, then click within the keyword if, then click within the keyword procedure, then click to the right of various semicolons after statements.

In each case, the insertion cursor is positioned between two characters.

Note that the structural selection ``tracks'' the cursor; i.e., when the insertion cursor is moved to a new position, the structural selection changes to the smallest syntactically well-formed phrase enclosing the insertion cursor. For example, clicking within a placeholder selects the placeholder, clicking within keyword if selects the corresponding conditional statement, and clicking within keyword procedure selects the entire compilation unit.

If the insertion cursor is moved to a position at which the ``smallest syntactically well-formed phrase'' is ambiguous, a somewhat larger phrase may be selected. For example, clicking immediately to the right of a semicolon after the assignment statement a:=1; structurally selects the assignment statement, but clicking to the right of the space that follows the semicolon selects both a:=1; and the following statement.

Another way to move the cursor is by using the standard cursor motion keys.

Use the cursor arrow keys to move the insertion cursor up, down, left, and right through the object.

As with mouse clicking, the structural selection tracks the insertion cursor as it moves. Note that cursor motion keys repeat if held down.

(X Windows) But the structural selection is only updated a short time after the repeating stops.