Android Text Selection Terminology

Question

How are the two "trapezoids" that appear during text selection (in the emulator) called?

Where can I find more information about how to control them programmatically?

For further clarity, I am attaching a snapshot where you can see the left & right "text-selection trapezoids":

enter image description here

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 08 '11 at 04:36

2

We just call them cursor controllers, or handles.

answered Mar 08 '11 at 04:36

Romain Guy

Thanks, Googling on [Android "cursor controllers"] yields no information on how to access them programmatically. Where can I find more information on these? Can they be controlled? – Regex Rookie Mar 08 '11 at 04:51
Are these "cursor controllers" the same as in updateCursorControllerPositions() in the following? http://hi-android.info/src/android/widget/TextView.java.html – Regex Rookie Mar 08 '11 at 04:55
Is View.startDrag() the right way to control these handles? Is it possible to position each one of them independently? If so, how? (oops... I just noticed this is only available with API 11. Is there something similar for API 8?) – Regex Rookie Mar 08 '11 at 04:59
1

You cannot control them programmatically, they are handled by TextView.updateCursorControllerPositions() and startDrag() has nothing to do with them. – Romain Guy Mar 08 '11 at 06:46

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:01

It would appear based on the name of the images used to display these handles that they're called Text Select Handles, of which there's a

Left Text Select Handle;
Right Text Select Handle; and a
Middle Text Select Handle (which is just the Left and Right images side-by-side)

The underlying code that manages these is in the three classes that derive from HandleView in android.widget.Editor:

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 08 '11 at 03:17

0

This is a shot in the dark--but maybe they're called carets in Webkit?

answered Mar 08 '11 at 03:17

sourcenouveau

Thanks but I can't find any references that use the term "carets" for these. The closest I found were "cursors" and "tags": http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f12/copying-and-pasting-text-from-web-pages-7355/ – Regex Rookie Mar 08 '11 at 03:58

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 29 '12 at 06:42

0

to be precise ..

In android terminology it is "SelectionModifierCursorController"

edited Oct 29 '12 at 06:42

Andro Selva

answered Feb 14 '12 at 19:56

Lokesh

4 Answers4