[whatwg] New Test Suite for Rich Text Editing (contentEditable & JS)

[Roland Steiner]

 [Apologies if you have seen this already!]

Hi all,

As you probably know, the current state of rich text editing
functionalities in user agents (contentEditable, and the JavaScript
functions execCommand and queryCommandValue, etc.) is not quite ideal. There
are different specs listing different commands (in addition to the relevant
parts of the HTML5 spec, there's also the Midas spec:
http://www.mozilla.org/editor/midas-spec.html), and different UAs implement
different parts of both. Even common parts are often implemented differently
and may yield different result HTML and/or result selections.

Now, in order to document the current state of all of this, we are currently
setting up a new rich text editing test suite as part of the larger
browserscope (http://www.browserscope.org) framework. It is largely an
extension and generalization of the already existing "RichText" suite
there. We hope such a suite helps in identifying the main problem areas and
in improving interoperability. In turn, this should help reaching a common
set of editing commands and, generally, editing functionalities with
well-defined behavior that are useful for web authors.

A beta version can be accessed at
http://www.browserscope.org/richtext2/test (note
that being beta, the suite is not yet accessible from the main page at
http://www.browserscope.org). Please understand that we are still adding and
cleaning up tests, and details of the presentation. But at even at the
current, early stage it should give a good idea of the direction of the
suite. Indeed, as achieving consensus on the tests contained in the suite is
meant to be a community effort, it is bound to change and being extended
over time, as it solidifies based on input from contributors.

Therefore, as this can only benefit from the participation of as many
parties as possible, we would like to solicit input from everyone interested
in the field - or anyone with past grievances about bugs and
incompatibilities in the area! ;). For suggestions, criticism, and general
discussion on the suite and tests, please post a mail (or many!) at the
browserscope mailing list at browserscope at googlegroups.com.


Best regards,

- Roland Steiner
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