is the `textarea` inputStyle going to be deprecated in the future?

1

@marijn somewhere in the release notes you say you hope to someday make contenteditable inputStyle the default for all platforms. Does this mean that textarea will be deprecated?

Personally, the more I’m looking into codemirror and the differences between the two inputStyles, the more I’m seeing the contenteditable as inferior (at least for non-mobile platforms):

  • inability to customize many parts of the editor (cursor, selection…)
  • some APIs not working in certain cases (setSelection, showCursorWhenSelecting…), or working inconsistently (multiselection styling)
  • potential inconsistencies depending on different browser implementations of contenteditable (mostly visual, but possibly even functional)

I hear you that the contenteditable is working better on mobile (haven’t been able to get into that yet), but I think from the above there’s value in keeping the textarea inputStyle, and IMO instead of moving to make the contenteditable the default, I’d rather to make the textarea work cross-platform well, and make that the default, coz it seems more future-proof (and predictable/consistent), and not at the whim of browsers and being limited by what’s possible to do with contenteditable (which isn’t gonna evolve I reckon).

2

If there’s ever a major rewrite of CodeMirror (the codebase is showing its age), it’s likely that it will only do contentEditable-style input. But until then, I don’t expect to completely drop textarea support.

3

Actually, we are now working on that rewrite and only implement contenteditable as input method: Announcing: Work has started on CodeMirror 6.

4

Yes, I thought about this topic when I read that announcement :). It kinda worries me to be honest, because IIRC the contenteditable solution of current codeMirror version isn’t ideal. But, hoping for the best.

5

It’s definitely going to be much better than what CodeMirror currently does in terms of contenteditable support. You’re right that there might be things you cannot customize anymore, but that also means that we use more of what the user agent provides.

6

also means that we use more of what the user agent provides.

I’m sure, especially when mobile is concerned.

Btw, is there some dedicated place where we can discuss CM6, or should I just open topics on this forum?

7

There’s a (way too silent) forum thread and bugs would go into the new repository’s bug tracker. But specific new questions or topics can definitely be posted in their own threads.