I proposed to expand a range to word boundary. Here <https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=27632>is the related webkit bug. Below is the spec. Appreciated any feedbacks. *Syntax*: expands the range to the 'unit' boundary. interface Range { void expand(in DOMString uint) } *Parameters*: unit: String that specifies the units to move in the range, using one of the following values: word -- expand the range to include completed words. A word is the smallest semantic form in one language. In languages use space to break word, such as English, a word is a collection of characters terminated by a space or punctuation. sentence -- expand the range to include completed sentences. A sentence is a collection of words terminated by punctuation. block -- expand the range to include completed paragraphs. document -- expand the range to include the whole document. *Use case*: To identify a semantic unit (such as a word) when user mouse over or mouse click on a page. A specific use case is dictionary, which shows the worddefinition when user mouse over or mouse click in a webpage. *Example*: This example returns the range containing the word user moused over or mouse clicked (not double-clicked). var range = document.caretRangeFromPoint<http://dev.w3.org/csswg/cssom-view/#dom-documentview-caretrangefrompoint>(event.clientX, event.clientY); range.expand('word'); *Reference*: Microsoft's spec<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms536421(VS.85).aspx> . Thanks, Xiaomei On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 4:55 AM, Anne van Kesteren <annevk@opera.com> wrote:

Thanks for the reply!

On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:17:13 +0200, Xiaomei Ji <xji@chromium.org> wrote:

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"word" is a keyword. Like Microsoft's spec<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms536421%28VS.85%29.aspx>, a range could be extended to a 'character', a 'word', a 'sentence', or a 'line' etc.

As to whether it should be a method in Document or in Range, it is open to discussion.

I think putting it on Range similar to what Microsoft has done would be better. Document is already pretty bloated.

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And finally, use cases would help as well as a definition of "word boundary" and how this works/won't work in an international context.

A word is the smallest semantic form in one language. In languages use space to break word, such as English, a word is a collection of characters terminated by a space or punctuation. In languages do not use space to break word, such as Chinese, word breaker is needed to break a word.

The API should work for English, at least. Whether it works in an international context depends on whether the layout engine/browser supports correct word breaker in that language.

I do think we should define this.

I think the main problem here is that we do not have an editor for a new version of DOM Range. There are several other extensions that browsers have implemented and emulated from each other that would be nice to document clearly, but so far nobody has volunteered.

(It could maybe be done as a separate draft as well, similarly to how CSSOM View extends DOM Range, but updating DOM Range to today's standards for specifications would be good I think.)

-- Anne van Kesteren http://annevankesteren.nl/