Notes

A note is one instruction on one piece of code: a file, a line span (or a character span) and the text you write. Notes live in sessions.

Select code #

In the code pane of the Files or Diff view:

Press v or V again to stop selecting, Esc to clear the selection. Without a selection, a note goes on the line the cursor is on.

Write a note #

Press c. The note popup shows where the note goes (src/matcher.rs:L2-3), the first lines of the code, and the session it will be saved in.

Saving to another session than the active one doesn’t change the active session. If no session exists yet, c asks for a session name first and then opens the note.

See your notes #

Code with a note in the active session (“tacked” code) stands out: its lines get a light yellow background, and the gutter marks them in yellow:

 3 ●     for item in items {
 4 │         if item.contains(query) {
 5 ●             out.push(item.clone());
 8 ●     out

• ● alone: a one-line note.
• ● … │ … ●: a note over several lines, from first to last line.
• ⚠ in red: a stale note.

With the cursor on a tacked line, the bottom border of the code pane shows the start of that note’s instruction, cut short with … when it doesn’t fit:

╰ ● replace the loop with an iterator chain: items.iter().filter(..)… ─────╯

To read the whole note, press Enter on a tacked line. A popup shows its location, its session and the full text; from there e edits it, d deletes it and Esc closes it.

Files with notes in the active session get a ● in the file tree.

Edit a note #

Put the cursor on a noted line and press c: the popup opens with the note’s text, and Enter saves your changes. Selecting exactly the lines of a note and pressing c does the same. A selection that only overlaps a note makes a new note.

In the Session view, e edits the selected note.

Move a note to another session #

While editing a note, press Tab or Shift+Tab to pick another session, then Enter. The note moves there (to the end of that session) with your edits, and both sessions are saved.

Delete a note #

Put the cursor on a noted line and press d, or select the note in the Session view and press d. tackline asks first: y deletes, n keeps it.

Stale notes #

Each note remembers the code it was written on and a little of what was around it. When the file changes, tackline finds that code again:

• Lines inserted or removed above it: the note moves along.
• The code moved elsewhere in the file: the note follows it.
• The same code appears more than once: the copy with the most similar surroundings wins.
• The code is gone: the note becomes stale.

Stale notes show ⚠ in the gutter and the Session view, and are left out of the compiled prompt with a warning. They’re kept on disk, so if the code comes back (an undo, a reverted change) the note recovers.