selection.selectWord will consider whitespace a word

src/app/cursor.coffee

@@ -58,6 +58,11 @@ class Cursor
   isLastCursor: ->
     this == @editSession.getCursor()
 
+  isSurroundedByWhitespace: ->
+    {row, column} = @getBufferPosition()
+    range = [[row, column + 1], [row, Math.max(0, column - 1)]]
+    /^\s+$/.test @editSession.getTextInBufferRange(range)
+
   autoscrolled: ->
     @needsAutoscroll = false
 

src/app/selection.coffee

@@ -96,7 +96,10 @@ class Selection
     @screenRangeChanged()
 
   selectWord: ->
-    @setBufferRange(@cursor.getCurrentWordBufferRange())
+    options = {}
+    options.wordRegex = /[\t ]*/ if @cursor.isSurroundedByWhitespace()
+
+    @setBufferRange(@cursor.getCurrentWordBufferRange(options))
     @wordwise = true
     @initialScreenRange = @getScreenRange()