Re: [selection] Selection.setBaseAndExtent

For what its worth, we plan to remove base and extent from Blink/Chromium (
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=230267).  We've found
that developers do not understand the difference between focus/anchor and
base/extent, and since it is only supported by WebKit based browsers, it is
not heavily used.


On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 12:58 PM, Ben Peters <Ben.Peters@microsoft.com>
wrote:

>  I don’t understand the difference. setBaseAndExtent would then set all 4
> of these properties of selection? Do you have a definition to use for this?
>
>
>
> *From:* Ryosuke Niwa [mailto:rniwa@apple.com]
> *Sent:* Wednesday, August 6, 2014 12:43 PM
> *To:* James M. Greene
> *Cc:* Ben Peters; public-webapps
> *Subject:* Re: [selection] Selection.setBaseAndExtent
>
>
>
> Focus and anchor are different concepts from base and extent. While the
> former always coincide with start and end, base and extent may be different
> from those two.
>
>
>
> In particular, when a user selects text by double clicking on a word, base
> and extent stays at where the user had clicked while focus and anchor will
> extend to the beginning and the end of the word like start and end.
>
> - R. Niwa
>
>
> On Aug 5, 2014, at 4:58 PM, James M. Greene <james.m.greene@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>  For consistent terminology with the rest of the API, shouldn't it be
> `setAnchorAndFocus`?
>
> Sincerely,
>     James Greene
>     Sent from my [smart?]phone
>
> On Aug 5, 2014 5:54 PM, "Ben Peters" <Ben.Peters@microsoft.com> wrote:
>
>  I have added proposed text to this bug. Any objections to this?
>
>
>
> Proposed text, based on the text for collapse():
>
>
>
> void setBaseAndExtent (Node baseNode, unsigned long baseOffset, Node
> extentNode, unsigned long extentOffset);
>
>
>
> The method must throw an IndexSizeError exception if offset is negative or
> longer than node's length ([DOM4]). Otherwise, it must create a new range,
> set ([DOM4]) its start to (baseNode, baseOffset) and its and end to
> (extentNode, extentOffset), and set the context object's range to the
> newly-created range.
>
>
>
> *From:* Ben Peters
> *Sent:* Tuesday, May 20, 2014 11:37 AM
> *To:* Ben Peters; Ryosuke Niwa; public-webapps@w3.org
> *Subject:* RE: [selection] Selection.setBaseAndExtent
>
>
>
> I have filed a bug to track this issue [1].
>
>
>
> Ben
>
>
>
> [1] https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=25831
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Ben Peters [mailto:Ben.Peters@microsoft.com
> <Ben.Peters@microsoft.com>]
> *Sent:* Monday, May 5, 2014 11:28 PM
> *To:* Ryosuke Niwa; public-webapps@w3.org
> *Subject:* [selection] Selection.setBaseAndExtent
>
>
>
> I noticed that some websites use selection.setBaseAndExtent [1]. According
> to what limited documentation I could find, it works similar to
> selection.extend. Is there any intention to standardize this, or is it made
> obsolete by selection.extend?
>
>
>
> Ben
>
>
>
> [1]
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/985272/jquery-selecting-text-in-an-element-akin-to-highlighting-with-your-mouse
>
>