[whatwg] More HTML Editing Commands questions

Wed May 18 19:32:41 PDT 2011

On 5/18/11 6:57 PM, Tim Down wrote:
> On 18 May 2011 19:32, Aryeh Gregor<Simetrical+w3c at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>> Another argument against wrapping whitespace is that it can have an
>>> unwelcome visual effect if, for example, the wrapping elements have a
>>> CSS border applied.
>>
>> Borders only apply to boxes, and collapsed whitespace generates no
>> boxes, so it will generate no border.  Nor backgrounds, margins,
>> padding, etc.
>
> That may be what the CSS spec says

The collapsed whitespace generates no box, but the inline element sure 
generates a box per spec.  And that box can have padding, borders, 
margins, the works.  Aryeh, I suggest actually trying this in your 
favorite browser.  Just make sure to not use a WebKit-based one, since 
WebKit is buggy here.  Any Presto, Trident, or Gecko-based browser 
should do the trick, on the other hand.  Minimal testcase:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<span style="border: 1px solid green; padding: 5px; background: yellow">
</span>

That should give you a nice yellow box about 10px wide and 10px + 
(default font size) high with a green border around it.

Note that the presence or absence of whitespace is completely irrelevant 
here; the rendering is the same if the whitespace is deleted.... except 
in WebKit, which suddenly renders like every other browser if you delete 
the whitespace.  Buggy, like I said.

>> I'm not sure why.  DOM mutation events in their current form (i.e.,
>> synchronous) should work, no?  And if the selection change event is
>> not synchronous, you might not be able to use it anyway, because maybe
>> by the time the handler runs all sorts of changes happened

That can happen even if it's synchronous.

-Boris