Smooth pixel-based scrolling

[NeilGirdhar]

Problem

Some terminals (like Sakura) support smooth pixel-based scrolling. Kitty may soon support it too: kovidgoyal/kitty#1454

Expected behavior

It would be amazing if Neovim could work with the terminal so that this occurs whenever a command scrolls, e.g.,

• ctrl-d, ctrl-u (page down and up),
• zz (rehome)
• etc.

I've noticed that the Kitty creator has in various other threads been open to providing the necessary interface for working with various applications. So I think you could get buy-in from the terminal.

This would be a huge visual improvement for NeoVim over other text editors 😄

[bfredl]

Is there a quick reference for exactly what escape sequences Neovim TUI need to emit in order for this to happen?

[clason]

Let's wait for a standard protocol.

(Also, your "may support soon" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here -- to the point of being misleading, as this PR has been long stalled. This doesn't help your point.)

[syyyr]

I think the "smooth scrolling" mentioned in the kitty PR refers to the ability of the terminal to react to touchpad scroll events by the pixel instead of interpreting a certain distance scrolled as mouse scroll wheel events. This is already supported in other terminals and has nothing to do with neovim, it's about how the terminal interprets mouse events.

[zeertzjq]

I've noticed that the Kitty creator has in various other threads been open to providing the necessary interface for working with various applications.

What threads? What interface?

[NeilGirdhar]

Is there a quick reference for exactly what escape sequences Neovim TUI need to emit in order for this to happen?

AFAIK they don't exist yet 😄

Let's wait for a standard protocol.

Fair enough. But the motivation to create a standard protocol comes from potential users. Just a show of interest on the NeoVim side might be helpful?

(Also, your "may support soon" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here -- to the point of being misleading, as this PR has been long stalled. This doesn't help your point.)

Sorry I wasn't trying to mislead anyone. Maybe I'm a bit too optimistic.

tty PR refers to the ability of the terminal to react to touchpad scroll events by the pixel instead of interpreting a certain distance scrolled as mouse scroll wheel events.

The vim use-case is mentioned in the comments. The touchpad scrolling is simply another use case. There are multiple use-cases for that feature.

What threads? What interface?

I just read a bunch of threads recently. I think it was in some long discussion with the vim people regarding some terminal-vim interaction weirdness. He seemed quite open to creating various protocols to suit vim's needs.

[syyyr]

What I meant to say is that there's nothing that needs to be done from neovim's side - sure, scrolling in neovim is a usecase, but if neovim doesn't have to implement anything, why open an issue here?

[alba4k]

The pr you mention for kitty is 5 years old...

[zeertzjq]

I can see that something may indeed need to be done on Nvim's side if such a protocol exists: for smooth scrolling, it's necessary to send off-screen content to the terminal before sending scroll events.

[syyyr]

I guess pixel based scrolling also means the ability to basically only show a part of some line. Indeed, neovim would have add some support for this. It looks to me that the PR implements both of the "meanings", and that's why I was confused.

Edit: actually I'm probably just completely wrong about all of this. Sorry

[clason]

This is indeed too optimistic. Please open a new issue if and when a standard protocol is available we can consider implementing. Otherwise this is a generic and unactionable "letter to Santa" that just clutters the issue tracker.