[Bug 13908] New: WordStar semantics aren't supported

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=13908

           Summary: WordStar semantics aren't supported
           Product: WebAppsWG
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: PC
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P5
         Component: HTML Editing APIs
        AssignedTo: ayg@aryeh.name
        ReportedBy: ian@hixie.ch
         QAContact: sideshowbarker+html-editing-api@gmail.com
                CC: mike@w3.org, public-webapps@w3.org


The editing spec assumes that the caret cannot be independent of the current
user selection.

However, the selection spec rightly says "On some platforms (such as those
using Wordstar editing conventions), the caret position is totally independent
of the start and end of the selection, even when the selection is empty".

Thus, for instance, if [...] denotes the selection and | denotes the caret, and
the current situation is:

   He|ll[o World]

...then when the user hits "enter", the result will unexpectedly be:

   Hell

   |

...rather than, as expected:

   He

   ll[o World]

...which is what one would get in an editing environment with WordStar
semantics.


This isn't a huge problem since browsers pretty much all have a caret that
matches the selection, but we shouldn't be making UAs that want to try
different interaction models non-conforming. At a minimum, therefore, things in
the "Additional Requirements" section should be "SHOULD" not "MUST". Even
better would be to handle the case of the caret not matching the selection
explicitly. In UAs with WordStar semantics, you never blow away the selection
implicitly. So this might be as easy as only doing that in the cases where the
selection is treated like a fat caret.

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Received on Friday, 26 August 2011 00:01:42 UTC