w3c / w3c/editing

Caret movement based on visual screen position rather than DOM order?

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caret-movement
Dominant language
HTML
Stars
202
Forks
43
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

This is just a rough idea I wanted to bring to discussion.

Assuming this DOM structure:

<div contenteditable="true" style="position: relative; width: 500px; height: 500px;">
  <div style="position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0;">text in top right corner</div>
  <div style="position: absolute; left: 0; top: 0;">text in top left corner</div>
</div>

And the cursor being after the last character of "text in top left corner". Now assume the user presses ArrowRight.

Current behavior: The cursor doesn't move anywhere as it's in the last available text position, according to DOM order.

New behavior: The cursor moves right before the "text in top right corner"

Concerns:

  • RTL editing conflicts with this? Why?
  • [Please add more concerns]

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the contenteditable HTML example and the described ArrowRight behavior, then review the open questions about visual position and RTL editing. Done would require a resolved, actionable definition of the proposed caret movement rather than only a rough discussion prompt.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
html
Domain
frontend
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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