[GH-ISSUE #1122] [Feature Request]: Methods to move the cursor to start/end in `TextArea` #812

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opened 2026-03-04 01:07:55 +03:00 by kerem · 2 comments

kerem commented

2026-03-04 01:07:55 +03:00

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Originally created by @dbohdan on GitHub (Sep 21, 2025).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/rivo/tview/issues/1122

I am looking to migrate my application from Bubble Tea to tview for its better text area performance with larger buffers (noticeable at hundreds of lines). Most functionality has a clear replacement, but moving the cursor to the start or end of the buffer doesn't seem to.

It would be useful to have methods like textArea.MoveCursorToStart() and textArea.MoveCursorToEnd() to do this directly. I have only found a way to emulate it with textArea.SetText(textArea.GetText(), false) and textArea.SetText(textArea.GetText(), true).

If you make a breaking change in the future, consider also binding these operations to the semi-standard shortcuts Ctrl+Home (start) and Ctrl+End (end).

Originally created by @dbohdan on GitHub (Sep 21, 2025). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/rivo/tview/issues/1122 I am looking to migrate [my application](https://github.com/dbohdan/pago) from Bubble Tea to tview for its better text area performance with larger buffers (noticeable at hundreds of lines). Most functionality has a clear replacement, but moving the cursor to the start or end of the buffer doesn't seem to. It would be useful to have methods like `textArea.MoveCursorToStart()` and `textArea.MoveCursorToEnd()` to do this directly. I have only found a way to emulate it with `textArea.SetText(textArea.GetText(), false)` and `textArea.SetText(textArea.GetText(), true)`. If you make a breaking change in the future, consider also binding these operations to the semi-standard shortcuts Ctrl+Home (start) and Ctrl+End (end).

kerem closed this issue

2026-03-04 01:07:55 +03:00

kerem commented

2026-03-04 01:07:56 +03:00

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@rivo commented on GitHub (Sep 27, 2025):

Maybe somewhat unintuitively, this is already possible with the Select() function.

To move to the beginning of the text:

textArea.Select(0, 0)

To move to the end of the text:

length := textArea.GetTextLength()
textArea.Select(length, length)

I think the reason I did not introduce Ctrl-Home / Ctrl-End to tview was that on my Mac, this is not handed to the terminal application but instead repositions and resizes the terminal window (Ctrl-Home being Ctrl-Fn-LeftArrow). It should be quite simple to add this to your application, however.

@rivo commented on GitHub (Sep 27, 2025): Maybe somewhat unintuitively, this is already possible with the [`Select()`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/rivo/tview#TextArea.Select) function. To move to the beginning of the text: ```go textArea.Select(0, 0) ``` To move to the end of the text: ```go length := textArea.GetTextLength() textArea.Select(length, length) ``` I think the reason I did not introduce <kbd>Ctrl-Home</kbd> / <kbd>Ctrl-End</kbd> to `tview` was that on my Mac, this is not handed to the terminal application but instead repositions and resizes the terminal window (<kbd>Ctrl-Home</kbd> being <kbd>Ctrl-Fn-LeftArrow</kbd>). It should be quite simple to add this to your application, however.

kerem commented

2026-03-04 01:07:56 +03:00

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@dbohdan commented on GitHub (Sep 27, 2025):

Oh, I see. Thanks for explaining. I have implemented the shortcuts in my app.

Implementation.

app.SetInputCapture(func(event *tcell.EventKey) *tcell.EventKey {
	switch event.Key() {
	// ...
	case tcell.KeyHome:
		if event.Modifiers()&tcell.ModCtrl != 0 {
			textArea.Select(0, 0)
			return nil
		}

	case tcell.KeyEnd:
		if event.Modifiers()&tcell.ModCtrl != 0 {
			length := textArea.GetTextLength()
			textArea.Select(length, length)
			return nil
		}
	}

	return event
})

I didn't notice this line in the documentation for Select:

They may be the same, in which case the cursor is placed at the given position.

I think I searched for "cursor" and missed it when going through the matches because there were too many, then focused on looking for "move", "beginning", "start", and "end".

TextArea probably doesn't need additional methods, but I think it's a good idea to document cursor manipulation some more. One way to do it would be by implementing Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End in demos/textarea/.

P.S.: The migration from Bubble Tea to tview has been successfully completed.

@dbohdan commented on GitHub (Sep 27, 2025): Oh, I see. Thanks for explaining. I have implemented the shortcuts in my app. <details> <summary>Implementation.</summary> ```go app.SetInputCapture(func(event *tcell.EventKey) *tcell.EventKey { switch event.Key() { // ... case tcell.KeyHome: if event.Modifiers()&tcell.ModCtrl != 0 { textArea.Select(0, 0) return nil } case tcell.KeyEnd: if event.Modifiers()&tcell.ModCtrl != 0 { length := textArea.GetTextLength() textArea.Select(length, length) return nil } } return event }) ``` </details> I didn't notice this line in the documentation for `Select`: > They may be the same, in which case the cursor is placed at the given position. I think I searched for "cursor" and missed it when going through the matches because there were too many, then focused on looking for "move", "beginning", "start", and "end". `TextArea` probably doesn't need additional methods, but I think it's a good idea to document cursor manipulation some more. One way to do it would be by implementing Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End in `demos/textarea/`. P.S.: The migration from Bubble Tea to tview has been successfully completed.

kerem referenced this issue

2026-03-04 01:09:11 +03:00

[PR #812] InsertColumn should increment lastColumn #1049