Specify color setting of column number

[ShikChen]

Currently (0.4.0) the --colors option only supports types path, line and match. There is no way to specify the color of column number now. So when using with --column, the column part is uncolored and has the same style of matching line, which is a little unpleasant.

[BurntSushi]

@ShikChen Out of curiosity, what do you use the column information for?

[ShikChen]

I use it for vim, which needs the column information to jump into exact location. The above statement is also true for option --vimgrep. More precisely, I use it with fzf.vim.

[BurntSushi]

@ShikChen Sorry, I wasn't clear. Color information is for humans. What do you use the column information for? I understand that automated tools may read it to do useful things, but automated tools don't need colors.

[ShikChen]

But I will see the column information in the UI of fzf.vim, if I want to jump with exact location. When the matching line starts without indent (white spaces), my eyes cannot easily parse boundary between the column number and matching line, especially when that line is starting with numbers.

I agree that most of time we don't need line/column numbers. But it's still possible that someone is manipulating tabular data like csv, and need line/column information to distinguish between multiple matches.

I can understand if you decide not to add color to column number. The default search tool in fzf is Ag, which doesn't support it either. Nobody complains about that so maybe I am too sensitive.

Inspired from your comment, now I have some vimscripts that hiding the line/column part in fzf.

[BurntSushi]

FWIW, I do actually think line numbers are useful to be able to read because it helps orient our minds to where something is in a file (and possibly relative to other things as well). But column numbers seem less useful since lines are generally pretty short and the matches themselves are highlighted with color.

I'll leave this open for now and mull on it some more.

[ShikChen]

I found another scenario that I want the column number recently, although it's a little complex and weird. I have mapped a hotkey in vim to search the current word under the cursor in ripgrep with fzf, and I can interactively filter the results in fzf. I sometimes use the column number as filter. For example, when tracing the code of Bash, I use the column number :1: to select the function definition. (I know that I can use ^ to match the prefix in normal ripgrep/fzf usage, but it's just harder to use in my scenario.)

[kpp]

The case of reading columns is -o flag.

There is only one possibility to differ on bar from another bar if they are both on the same line.

[BurntSushi]

@kpp That is interesting, and I think I buy that use case. However, if --only-matching only shows the matched portion of the line and both the match and the line number are colored, the column number will actually be distinct even though it's not specifically colorized.

[kpp]

How about --colors=match:none?

[BurntSushi]

Seems contrived to me.

[kpp]

How about echo -e "foo\nfoo\n1:bar" | rg foo -n -A1 --column?

[kpp]

@BurntSushi An options is to reset column color by default, but let users to control it if they want to.