Re: Bug 11239

On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 4:06 AM, Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage@gmail.com>wrote:

> > Mouse placement of the caret has to be reimplemented. + +
> > Keyboard movement of the caret has to be reimplemented (possibly across
> > lines, for multiline text input). + +
> > Scrolling of the text field has to be implemented (horizontally for long
> > lines, vertically for multiline input). + +
> > Native features such as copy-and-paste have to be reimplemented. + +
> > Native features such as spell-checking have to be reimplemented. + +
> > Native features such as drag-and-drop have to be reimplemented. + +
> > Native features specific to the user, for example custom text + services,
> > have to be reimplemented. This is close to impossible + since each user
> > might have different services installed, and there + is an unbounded set
> of
> > possible such services. + +
> > Bidirectional text editing has to be reimplemented. + +
> > Text selection has to be reimplemented. + +
> > Dragging of bidirectional text selections has to be reimplemented. + +
> > Platform-native keyboard shortcuts have to be reimplemented. + +
> > Platform-native input method editors (IMEs) have to be reimplemented. + +
> > Undo and redo functionality has to be reimplemented. + +
> > Accessibility features such as magnification following the + caret or
> > selection have to be reimplemented. + +
>

In addition,
-- "Text search" functionality commonly found in browsers doesn't work
-- For many use-cases, line wrapping would have to be reimplemented (very
hard to get right for all languages)

In the long run, writing a text editor with <canvas> is a dead end. The
Bespin project made a big investment in that approach and gave up --- and
they never even tried to tackle the hard problems of bidi, accessibility or
IMEs.

Rob
-- 
"Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for
they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures
every day to see if what Paul said was true." [Acts 17:11]