X11 cut (as cut/paste) accuracy

[Dave Howorth]

On Mon, 31 Jan 2022 04:50:16 +0100
Phi Debian <phi.debian at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> I am not subscribed, let me know if I need to, to post a question.
> 
> I have difficulties to select my text with a mouse (cut/paste) at a
> line start, and in a less extend to a midlle line char. I got the
> filling that to select a start char on a line you must be 'close' to
> its left edge, my font are small, and the window manager have a fuzzy
> area on the edge to be able to grab the thin window border (resize),
> i.e the window border spill over the char start, making it almost
> impossible to cut the 1st char of the line in one shot,

You don't give any details of what OS, desktop, window manager,
policies, applications etc you're talking about so it's difficult to
give a definite reply, but I'll start by saying that I see no such
symptoms on my system. The window manager is exceptionally precise and
limits its grab to the exact area of the border. 

Most applications leave whitespace between the left edge of the window
and the start of the text for readability reasons, so the situation
doesn't normally arise in any case.

> the work around is to activate the window my clicking on it the
> window manager release the fuzzy area and now you can select the text
> still with the same difficutlies as middle line chars.
> 
> For middle line char you got to be close to the left edge of a char
> to cut it, beeing closer to the left edge miss the cut.
> 
> Here is with a drawing what I feel.
> 
> A char drawing area.
> +---o---o---+
> |---o---o---|
> |---o---o---|
> |---o---o---|
> |---o---o---|
> +---o---o---+
>   ^   ^   ^
>   |   |   +--<-- Click here miss the selection (next char is selected
> as select start)
>   |   +--<---<-- Ditto
>   +--<---<---<-- Success
> 
> My question is, is there an X option (setup) to define where in a
> char you got to be to make the select a success even if you are
> closer to the right part of a char.

No

> If not settable how hard would it be to make a local patch ?

You're looking at the wrong area. Something on your system is
misbehaving. You need to explore exactly what it is and then either use
some different component or explore how to fix the component.

> I am ignorant regarding the X11 code, don't know how hard/easy it is
> to build on linux, where to start looking for that.

You don't want or need to do that. Your problem must be caused by
higher layer code.

> Thanx in advance for your help
> 
> Cheers,