Some text objects in visual mode do not behave as documented

[dpelle]

In ":help text-objects", I read:

=== BEGIN QUOTE ===
When used in Visual mode:
When start and end of the Visual area are the same (just after typing "v"):
    One object is selected, the same as for using an operator.
When start and end of the Visual area are not the same:
    For non-block objects the area is extended by one object or the white
    space up to the next object, or both for the "a" objects.  The
    direction in which this happens depends on which side of the Visual
    area the cursor is.  For the block objects the block is extended one
    level outwards.
== END QUOTE ===

This appears to be true for some text objects (e.g. word or
sentence) but not for others (e.g. tag, or paragraph).

Examples

Following command selects inner word in visual mode. It
visually selects "dom" as expected. The whole word "random"
word is not selected because start and end of visual block
are different prior to doing normal command iw (inner word):

$ echo "Just some <b>random words</b>." | vim --clean -c 'norm fdvliw' -

So far so good. But the following command visually selects the
whole tag "random words" despite start and end of visual block
being different. I would have expected it to only select "dom words"
since start/end of visual block were not identical when doing
normal command it (inner tag):

$ echo "Just some <b>random words</b>." | vim --clean -c 'norm fdvlit' -

Is this a bug? Or should the documentation be updated?

Vim version

$ vim --version
VIM - Vi IMproved 8.1 (2018 May 18, compiled Jan 11 2019 23:45:42)
Included patches: 1-728
Compiled by pel@pel-cirrus7
Huge version with GTK3 GUI.  Features included (+) or not (-):
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++builtin_terms    +gettext           +netbeans_intg     +textprop
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+dnd               +mouse             +startuptime       +xim
-ebcdic            +mouseshape        +statusline        +xpm
+emacs_tags        +mouse_dec         -sun_workshop      +xsmp_interact
+eval              +mouse_gpm         +syntax            +xterm_clipboard
+ex_extra          -mouse_jsbterm     +tag_binary        -xterm_save
   system vimrc file: "$VIM/vimrc"
     user vimrc file: "$HOME/.vimrc"
 2nd user vimrc file: "~/.vim/vimrc"
      user exrc file: "$HOME/.exrc"
  system gvimrc file: "$VIM/gvimrc"
    user gvimrc file: "$HOME/.gvimrc"
2nd user gvimrc file: "~/.vim/gvimrc"
       defaults file: "$VIMRUNTIME/defaults.vim"
    system menu file: "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim"
  fall-back for $VIM: "/usr/local/share/vim"
Compilation: clang-6.0 -c -I. -Iproto -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -DFEAT_GUI_GTK  -pthread -I/usr/include/gtk-3.0 -I/usr/include/at-spi2-atk/2.0 -I/usr/include/at-spi-2.0 -I/usr/include/dbus-1.0 -I/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dbus-1.0/include -I/usr/include/gtk-3.0 -I/usr/include/gio-unix-2.0/ -I/usr/include/cairo -I/usr/include/pango-1.0 -I/usr/include/harfbuzz -I/usr/include/pango-1.0 -I/usr/include/atk-1.0 -I/usr/include/cairo -I/usr/include/pixman-1 -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/include/libpng16 -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/include/libpng16 -I/usr/include/gdk-pixbuf-2.0 -I/usr/include/libpng16 -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/glib-2.0/include   -g -O2 -U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=1   -DEXITFREE -DABORT_ON_INTERNAL_ERROR   
Linking: clang-6.0   -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,--as-needed -o vim   -lgtk-3 -lgdk-3 -lpangocairo-1.0 -lpango-1.0 -latk-1.0 -lcairo-gobject -lcairo -lgdk_pixbuf-2.0 -lgio-2.0 -lgobject-2.0 -lglib-2.0 -lSM -lICE -lXpm -lXt -lX11 -lXdmcp -lSM -lICE  -lm -ltinfo -lnsl  -lselinux   -lacl -lattr -lgpm -ldl   

[brammool]

Dominique wrote:

In ":help text-objects", I read: ``` === BEGIN QUOTE === When used in Visual mode: When start and end of the Visual area are the same (just after typing "v"): One object is selected, the same as for using an operator. When start and end of the Visual area are not the same: For non-block objects the area is extended by one object or the white space up to the next object, or both for the "a" objects. The direction in which this happens depends on which side of the Visual area the cursor is. For the block objects the block is extended one level outwards. == END QUOTE === ``` This appears to be true for some text objects (e.g. word or sentence) but not for others (e.g. tag, or paragraph). **Examples** Following command selects inner word in visual mode. It visually selects "dom" as expected. The whole word "random" word is not selected because start and end of visual block are different prior to doing normal command iw (inner word): ``` $ echo "Just some <b>random words</b>." | vim --clean -c 'norm fdvliw' - ``` So far so good. But the following command visually selects the whole tag "random words" despite start and end of visual block being different. I would have expected it to only select "dom words" since start/end of visual block were not identical when doing normal command it (inner tag): ``` $ echo "Just some <b>random words</b>." | vim --clean -c 'norm fdvlit' - ``` Is this a bug? Or should the documentation be updated?

It can be useful to search for a text object boundary in one direction. So I would say this is a bug. It might be a bit of work to implement properly.

…

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