I knew those pages and they confirm that there is neither character nor column available variable.
echo ${!GEDIT_*} gives the list below:
GEDIT_CURRENT_DOCUMENT_DIR
GEDIT_CURRENT_DOCUMENT_LANGUAGE
GEDIT_CURRENT_DOCUMENT_NAME
GEDIT_CURRENT_DOCUMENT_PATH
GEDIT_CURRENT_DOCUMENT_SCHEME
GEDIT_CURRENT_DOCUMENT_TYPE
GEDIT_CURRENT_DOCUMENT_URI
GEDIT_CURRENT_LINE
GEDIT_CURRENT_LINE_NUMBER
GEDIT_CURRENT_WORD
GEDIT_CWD
GEDIT_DOCUMENTS_PATH
GEDIT_DOCUMENTS_URI
GEDIT_FILE_BROWSER_ROOT
Let us suppose I have a line in a file with several occurrences of the same word and I am selecting one of them… With the available GEDIT_* variables, I can know the current line, the current word, the selection… But I can’t neither know which occurrence I am selecting nor where the selection starts.
With a GEDIT_CURRENT_CHARACTER or a GEDIT_CURRENT_COLUMN[1] I can know where the selection starts and make some stuff and change the selection.
I have not found on gitlab.gnome.org where I could ask for adding those variables. Rather, I’ve been politely invited to go there to talk. Where can I ask adding those variables ? Could one of my readers ask it ?