[webkit-dev] Supporting css ime-mode property

[Alexey Proskuryakov]

On 05.10.2010, at 10:56, Ryosuke Niwa wrote:

> - Do we really want to implement an IE extension in a way that's way different from IE?
> 
> We support many features that IE initially implemented; HTML editing is a good example.

How is this relevant? This topic is complicated as is, let's not try to confuse each other.

>  Also, I don't think the difference between IE and Firefox's implementation affects CJK websites, which presumably will be the primary users of ime-mode.

I think it does. An example that was given by Kenichi Ishibashi in <https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21279> was a site that used ime-mode to limit input to Katakana. You can't type Katakana when an ASCII-capable IM is forced on Mac, can you?

> We really should have named this property as cjk-ime-mode!

Yes, every feature that's added to the Web is only put to good use, exactly as envisioned by its creators.

Do you suggest limiting the feature to pages that specify lang="ja"? I didn't respond to you previous e-mail, because I don't see how any argument of usefulness on "CJK websites" in specific circumstances is an answer to concerns about possible harm.

> - What to do on platforms other than Mac and Windows?
> 
> We can do whatever is "appropriate" or not support it at the moment.

Making it easier for web sites to support only a subset of important platforms is not something that I see as a good thing.

I think that whoever proposes adding a feature to desktop WebKit needs to make sure that it doesn't make mobile users miserable. We need to improve both.

> - What to do with the harm from future misuse, which is more than likely, given that most (all?) suggested use cases were wrong?
> 
> I think it's websites' fault if they misuse CSS property.

We cannot expect this level of i18n awareness from web site authors. Pretty much every use of this feature is a misuse, but it takes considerable experience to know why.

On 05.10.2010, at 10:38, Alexey Proskuryakov wrote:

> Note that Mozilla documentation on ime-mode <https://developer.mozilla.org/en/CSS/ime-mode> has weird disclaimers like
> "in general, it's not appropriate for a public web site to manipulate the IME mode setting. This property should be used for web applications and the like". I'm reading this as "we're now sorry that we implemented it".

I now tested, and it looks like Mac Firefox doesn't actually implement ime-mode, despite documentation claims. That's surprising, could you please check that?

- WBR, Alexey Proskuryakov

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