User:Uri/Bidi editing
This is currently a private draft. Come back later if you're interested.
My goals for this document are:
- Give a high-level overview of how bidirectional editing currently works in Mozilla.
- Point out some problems with the current approach.
- Present an abstract alternative approach, which I think can solve some of these problems.
- Finally, suggest how this new approach can be implemented within the current framework.
Before starting, one important notice:
Mozilla currently implements what's known as visual caret movement. That is, pressing the left (right) arrow key always moves the caret one place to the left (right), regardless of the directionality of the text the caret is on, or of the paragraph directionality. This approach is also the system approach on Mac OS X (and always was on MacOS), but is not the system behaviour on Windows (which uses logical caret movement instead).
This document assumes that this approach is going to remain, i.e., it duscusses only visual caret movement. Some of the issues discussed below might be relevant to logical caret movement as well, but many aren't. If you're interested in the visual-vs-logical debate, see bug 167288.