[css-ui-4] user-select in editable elements

The Editing task force just raised the issue of the interaction of ''user-select:none'' and editable elements:

https://github.com/w3c/editing-explainer/issues/20

The spec already says that on Editing Hosts and editable form controls, 'user-select' computes to ''element'', so we don't have to worry about what ''none'' would mean since you cannot have it.

However, as of the current spec, you can still have it on editable children of an Editing hosts. This may be bad for 2 reasons:

* Not allowing users to select parts of the text they are editing is somewhat hostile
* Editing operations are currently defined in terms of actions on (potentially collapsed) selections

I suggest we fix this by saying that the computed value of 'user-select' on editable descendants of an editing host is always ''text'', regardless of the specified value.

There is currently no interop on this. As far as I can tell:
* Blink does what I suggest

* Webkit lets you apply other values than text, which makes the corresponding sub-elements impossible to edit

* Firefox lets you apply other values than text, which limits the kind of edits you can do the corresponding sub-elements, without blocking them entirely

* IE11 lets you apply other values than text, and they affect selection, but you can still edit normally.

 - Florian

Received on Tuesday, 26 May 2015 09:28:27 UTC