[webkit-dev] Overtype mode in WebKit for editable content?

[Ryosuke Niwa]

On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 6:15 PM, Peter Kasting <pkasting at google.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 5:54 PM, Ryosuke Niwa <rniwa at webkit.org> wrote:
>
>> Having said that, I object to implementing a behavior doesn't match
>> "RichEdit" or "Edit" window classes on Windows. We should match either
>> native edit window class.
>>
>
> Are you referring to my comments about the cursor?  Do you object, then,
> to other behaviors the native controls don't support, e.g. triple-click to
> select all (not part of at least some versions of CRichEditCtrl, which is
> why I hand-implemented it in the Chrome omnibox)?
>

Yes, we should disable triple-click-to-select-all on Windows although there
are certain features we would like to support (e.g. spell checking) for
convenience and the Web compatibility.  Granted, there are certain editing
features that are hard to replicate native behavior (e.g. caret movements
in bidirectional text) but those should still be considered as bugs.

In general, if we have a superior way of doing something, are we to be
> forced to avoid implementing it because Microsoft didn't get around to
> adding it to CRichEditCtrl?
>

The problem is that there is virtually no situation in which X is strictly
superior to Y in all situations for any given X and Y.

I remember I was stunned by how selection was painted in Google Chrome on
Windows when it was initially released because it violated the platform
convention I was used to on Windows. There were quite few other
editing-related features that struck me as unconventional such as the caret
appearing before the space following a word when moving caret forward at
word boundaries. All those tiny differences added up to the point where I
decided not to use Google Chrome as my primary Web browser on Windows.

So I'm extremely skeptical when you say we can up with a superior way of
doing something on Windows based on user expectations because user
expectations are often shaped by other applications they use.

- R. Niwa
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