Merge pull request #5739 from Textualize/clear-selection

clear selections

Author: willmcgugan

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 - Fixed alignment not being applied when there are min and max limits on dimensions https://github.com/Textualize/textual/pull/5732
 - Fixed issues with OptionList scrollbar not updating https://github.com/Textualize/textual/pull/5736
 - Fixed allow_focus method not overriding `can_focus()` https://github.com/Textualize/textual/pull/5737
+- Fixed overlap of Input / TextArea selection with arbitrary text selection https://github.com/Textualize/textual/pull/5739
 
 ### Changed
 
@@ -29,6 +30,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
 - Added `TEXTUAL_DIM_FACTOR` env var to set the opacity of the 'dim' ANSI attribute https://github.com/Textualize/textual/pull/5715
 - `notify()` now accepts a `markup` parameter to disable rendering the message as markup https://github.com/Textualize/textual/pull/5719
+- Added `Screen.text_selection_started_signal` https://github.com/Textualize/textual/pull/5739
+- Added `App.clear_selection()` helper method to clear arbitrary text selection of active screen https://github.com/Textualize/textual/pull/5739
 
 ## [3.0.1] - 2025-04-01
 

src/textual/app.py

@@ -4290,6 +4290,13 @@ def _refresh_notifications(self) -> None:
             # Update the toast rack.
             self.call_later(toast_rack.show, self._notifications)
 
+    def clear_selection(self) -> None:
+        """Clear text selection on the active screen."""
+        try:
+            self.screen.clear_selection()
+        except NoScreen:
+            pass
+
     def notify(
         self,
         message: str,

src/textual/screen.py

@@ -290,6 +290,11 @@ def __init__(
         self.bindings_updated_signal: Signal[Screen] = Signal(self, "bindings_updated")
         """A signal published when the bindings have been updated"""
 
+        self.text_selection_started_signal: Signal[Screen] = Signal(
+            self, "selection_started"
+        )
+        """A signal published when text selection has started."""
+
         self._css_update_count = -1
         """Track updates to CSS."""
 
@@ -1541,6 +1546,7 @@ def _forward_event(self, event: events.Event) -> None:
                 ):
                     self._selecting = True
                     if select_widget is not None and select_offset is not None:
+                        self.text_selection_started_signal.publish(self)
                         self._select_start = (
                             select_widget,
                             event.screen_offset,

src/textual/signal.py

@@ -3,8 +3,6 @@
 
 DOMNodes can subscribe to a signal, which will invoke a callback when the signal is published.
 
-This is experimental for now, for internal use. It may be part of the public API in a future release.
-
 """
 
 from __future__ import annotations

src/textual/widgets/_input.py

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 
 from textual import events
 from textual.expand_tabs import expand_tabs_inline
+from textual.screen import Screen
 from textual.scroll_view import ScrollView
 from textual.strip import Strip
 
@@ -476,6 +477,7 @@ def validate_selection(self, selection: Selection) -> Selection:
         return Selection(clamp(start, 0, value_length), clamp(end, 0, value_length))
 
     def _watch_selection(self, selection: Selection) -> None:
+        self.app.clear_selection()
         self.app.cursor_position = self.cursor_screen_offset
         if not self._initial_value:
             self.scroll_to_region(
@@ -665,6 +667,13 @@ def _toggle_cursor(self) -> None:
         self._cursor_visible = not self._cursor_visible
 
     def _on_mount(self, event: Mount) -> None:
+        def text_selection_started(screen: Screen) -> None:
+            """Signal callback to unselect when arbitrary text selection starts."""
+            self.selection = Selection.cursor(self.cursor_position)
+
+        self.screen.text_selection_started_signal.subscribe(
+            self, text_selection_started, immediate=True
+        )
         self._blink_timer = self.set_interval(
             0.5,
             self._toggle_cursor,

src/textual/widgets/_text_area.py

@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 )
 from textual.document._wrapped_document import WrappedDocument
 from textual.expand_tabs import expand_tabs_inline, expand_text_tabs_from_widths
+from textual.screen import Screen
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     from tree_sitter import Language, Query
@@ -657,6 +658,8 @@ def _watch_selection(
         if not self.is_mounted:
             return
 
+        self.app.clear_selection()
+
         cursor_location = selection.end
 
         self.scroll_cursor_visible()
@@ -1569,9 +1572,17 @@ def gutter_width(self) -> int:
         return gutter_width
 
     def _on_mount(self, event: events.Mount) -> None:
+
+        def text_selection_started(screen: Screen) -> None:
+            """Signal callback to unselect when arbitrary text selection starts."""
+            self.selection = Selection(self.cursor_location, self.cursor_location)
+
+        self.screen.text_selection_started_signal.subscribe(
+            self, text_selection_started, immediate=True
+        )
+
         # When `app.theme` reactive is changed, reset the theme to clear cached styles.
         self.watch(self.app, "theme", self._app_theme_changed, init=False)
-
         self.blink_timer = self.set_interval(
             0.5,
             self._toggle_cursor_blink_visible,