[webkit-dev] propose an API to return Range in <textarea> etc. form control nodes (similar functionality as document.caretRangeFromPoint)

[Maciej Stachowiak]

On Oct 12, 2009, at 1:08 AM, Anne van Kesteren wrote:

> On Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:04:52 +0200, Xiaomei Ji <xji at chromium.org>  
> wrote:
>> Maybe I should propose Document.wordFromPoint() which  directly  
>> returns the word under the mouse (and handles both the DOM node and  
>> non-DOM form control nodes).
>> It hides the information about the node and should be a useful API.
>
> Don't you need at least some context information as well besides  
> just the word? Although I suppose you can get that using a  
> combination of elementFromPoint and wordFromPoint...

I think we should consider changing caretRangeFromPoint's return type,  
if it's not too late. It's useful to get the caret position inside a  
text form control, beyond the immediate use case.

Instead of returning a Range, caretRangeFromPoint could return an  
object like this:

interface CaretPosition {
     readonly attribute Node containingNode;
     readonly attribute int offset;
     readonly attribute DOMString offsetKind; // "document" or "control"
}

It could have a convenience method for converting a Range too, if  
that's really needed (which would give null or something for a control  
position).

Regards,
Maciej