Re: on execCommand() and script-triggered copy/cut/paste

On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 2:50 PM, Hallvord Reiar Michaelsen Steen <
hsteen@mozilla.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 2:10 PM, Aryeh Gregor <ayg@aryeh.name> wrote:
>
...

>
>> Nevertheless, having some kind of spec is a good idea in principle,
>> because implementers still do maintain their implementations to some
>> degree, like fixing bugs.  I don't know if my spec is actually useful
>> from that perspective to anyone other than me, because it's very
>> complicated and I don't know if it's comprehensible to anyone else
>> without a lot of study that they aren't going to put in.  I think it's
>> probably best to keep it around somewhere, but prominently indicate
>> that the feature is obsolete and non-conforming.
>>
>> Is everyone happy with that?
>>
>
> I'm certainly happy with that, and I would also like the very minor change
> that will say execCommand with copy/cut/paste argument should trigger the
> corresponding actions in the clipboard API spec - to describe the current
> state of affairs and help implementors who want to be compatible with
> legacy code out there. For atonement I promise to follow up suggestions for
> a new API for writing to the clipboard - one that will not use
> execCommand() ;).
>

I don't think that makes sense. We will not want the new specs to be
implemented if they cannot be used fully without the usage of execCommand.

At the same time, old code does use execCommand in more than just clipboard
related things, mainly to get around certain strange behavior (that would
seem like a bug, but given that there is no specc to refer to, cannot be
counted as such).

My understanding is that there is the old world:

cE=true, execCommand and current execCommand for paste/copy. This all has
implementations behind it, but isn't yet in a full W3C recommendation (it
is only mentioned)

the new world:

cE=events, new clipboard access functions. These are only partially specced
and lack implementations.

We want the old world to never show up in any W3C recommendations, but we
do not mind them being continued to be developed as drafts.

Instead we want the new world to go through the entire recommendation and
implementation process.


So in the case of the clipboard api, you have the section 10.3 that
mentions execCommand, but it's nowhere else. I think it would be best if
that section 10.3 was taken out and put into its own document, so that the
rest of the clipboard api can move through the rest of the recommendation
process without us having to deal with execCommand forever.

-- 
Johannes Wilm
Fidus Writer
http://www.fiduswriter.org