Re: [whatwg] Request for implementer feedback: multiple Ranges per Selection
On 1/28/11 10:59 AM, Aryeh Gregor wrote: 1) Are there real-world use-cases for multiple Ranges per Selection, or was it just an attempt to be as general as possible? In Gecko you can select table cells in a table. For example, load this document: data:text/html,tabletrtd1td2trtd3td4 then accel-click (Cmd-click on mac, Ctrl-click on Windows/Linux) the 1, then the 4. That this point the selection cannot be represented as a single range. You can also create multi-range selections in Gecko outside of tables. For example, load this document: data:text/html,1234567890 Click to the left of the 1 and drag right to between the 2 and the 3. Then release the mouse, accel-click between the 6 and the 7 and drag to between the 8 and the 9. Again, you have a 2-range selection. So to represent selections that users can make, you have to allow multiple ranges in a Selection object. 4) Assuming that the answers to the last two questions are no, would Gecko be willing to drop support for multiple Ranges per Selection? The only ways we could do that would be to break user-facing selection behavior in our browser (which is obviously undesirable) or to make the DOM Selection object not actually reflect the state of the selection (again, seems undesirable). We might be willing to do the latter if it were really necessary, but that would significantly reduce the usefulness of the Selection API to developers, I think. On the other hand, multi-range selections can be very useful for scripting (e.g. Gecko actually uses them to implement spellcheck underlining, search result highlighting, and so forth). So it seems to me that a better direction is to allow multi-range selection in UAs in general. -Boris
Re: [whatwg] Request for implementer feedback: multiple Ranges per Selection
On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 7:59 AM, Aryeh Gregor simetrical+...@gmail.comsimetrical%2b...@gmail.com wrote: 2) Have WebKit or Opera run into any websites that depend on being able to use multiple Ranges per Selection? As far as I know, there is no bug filed against this, which seems to imply that we haven't had significant issues. 3) Are WebKit or Opera planning to add support for multiple Ranges per Selection? (I'd be interested in IE too, clearly, but they don't read this list.) Not anytime soon as far as I'm concerned. We do have a comment in the code indicating there had been a plan, but I don't think anyone is actively working on it. Because we haven't had much complaints from users and developers and supporting it requires so much work, I personally think it's not worth the effort. - Ryosuke
Re: [whatwg] Request for implementer feedback: multiple Ranges per Selection
On 28 January 2011 16:53, Ryosuke Niwa rn...@webkit.org wrote: On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 7:59 AM, Aryeh Gregor simetrical+...@gmail.comsimetrical%2b...@gmail.com wrote: 2) Have WebKit or Opera run into any websites that depend on being able to use multiple Ranges per Selection? As far as I know, there is no bug filed against this, which seems to imply that we haven't had significant issues. 3) Are WebKit or Opera planning to add support for multiple Ranges per Selection? (I'd be interested in IE too, clearly, but they don't read this list.) Not anytime soon as far as I'm concerned. We do have a comment in the code indicating there had been a plan, but I don't think anyone is actively working on it. Because we haven't had much complaints from users and developers and supporting it requires so much work, I personally think it's not worth the effort. At the risk of misusing this platform, I would venture that WebKit has more pressing issues with Selections (for example, not being able to place the caret at the start of a text node). Tim
Re: [whatwg] Request for implementer feedback: multiple Ranges per Selection
On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 9:05 AM, Tim Down timd...@gmail.com wrote: Not anytime soon as far as I'm concerned. We do have a comment in the code indicating there had been a plan, but I don't think anyone is actively working on it. Because we haven't had much complaints from users and developers and supporting it requires so much work, I personally think it's not worth the effort. At the risk of misusing this platform, I would venture that WebKit has more pressing issues with Selections (for example, not being able to place the caret at the start of a text node). Yes, and that seems to have a higher priority than multi-range support. - Ryosuke
Re: [whatwg] Request for implementer feedback: multiple Ranges per Selection
On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 10:59 AM, Aryeh Gregor simetrical+...@gmail.comsimetrical%2b...@gmail.com wrote: 1) Are there real-world use-cases for multiple Ranges per Selection, or was it just an attempt to be as general as possible? 2) Have WebKit or Opera run into any websites that depend on being able to use multiple Ranges per Selection? For what it's worth, the only thing I've noticed this used for is hijacking copy events and adding ads to copied text (by appending a hidden div to the selection), which is infuriating. Unfortunately, methods of doing this without ranges do exist; this just makes it easier... -- Glenn Maynard
