15282 - selection code should respect style context settings

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: DOM: Selection, defect, P1)

Description

[buster]

today, selection painting is hard-coded.
all the UI properties from CSS-3 are implemented in gecko, so we should start
using them.
this has several parts:
(1) for every frame, selection must look at the nsStyleUserInterface part of the
nsStyleContext to determine if the frame is selectable or not
(2)if the frame is selectable, selection must ask the style context how to
render the selection.  possibilities include invert, system
highlight foreground/background colors, outline, etc.
(3) once selection respects style, we need to add proper defaults to UA.CSS and
possibly other style sheets like the edit non-wysiwyg style sheet.
For example, the syntax for allowing selection of visible named anchors would
be:
a[name]: before {
  content : url(the_image_we_display);
  user-select : element;
}

the autocomplete stuff would probably be
whatever_acw_uses: before {
  user-select : none;
}

Peter will add some extra info about how to do this efficiently, how to protect
ourselves against style sheets causing reflows during selection (we'll
effectively forbid it), etc.

Comment 1

[buster]

a reasonable default for us.css would be
:selection { background-color: Highlight; color: HighlightText; }
where Highlight and HighlightText should already implemented on all platforms to
get the system colors.  (See Rods if there is a platform where this is not
true.)
There would also be some !important properties added to this style rule to
prevent reflows during selection, peterl has details.

Comment 2

[mjudge]

*** Bug 16148 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 3

[mjudge]

*** Bug 4542 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 4

[rubydoo123]

setting the milestone to M14 and setting status to assigned

Comment 5

[rubydoo123]

moving to m16

Comment 6

[rubydoo123]

updating keyword and status whiteboard to reflect that this is a beta 2 feature 
work bug that the Composer team deems a must fix for beta 2.

Comment 7

[Phil Peterson]

[nsbeta2+ until 5/16]

Comment 8

[rubydoo123]

nominate for nsbeta3, setting to m17 and updating keyword and whiteboard

Comment 9

[mjudge]

tring to bounce this to marc. sounds like your cup of tea.

Comment 10

[Marc Attinasi]

What is it I am suppossed to be doing here? Style alerady supports the 
user-select property. Please advise and explain how this is my cup of tea.

Comment 11

[Marc Attinasi]

Adding Need Info to status whiteboard - I don't understand the problem that is 
being reported, ergo I don't understand how I can fix it.

Comment 12

[Marc Attinasi]

New milestone: still hoping somebody can clue me in to what is suppossed to be 
done here...

Comment 13

[Marc Attinasi]

CC'ing Pierre - I think we are done with this bug, no?

Comment 14

[Marc Attinasi]

I'm getting the feeling that nobody cares about (or understands) this bug...

I need to know what it is about, why it was assigned to me, why it is important 
for beta3, and ONLY THEN can I actually do something with it. If there is no 
traction on this bug in the next few days it is getting closed.

Comment 15

[Pierre Saslawsky]

This bug is outdated. We obey 'user-select', although not correcty yet (this is 
bug 42864 that I'm going to check in later today) and we also use the colors from 
the LookAndFeel, which gets them from the OS.

Marking fixed.

Comment 16

[Marc Attinasi]

Thanks Pierre!

Comment 17

[Blake Ross]

*SPAM*: Changing the QA contact of all open/resolved Selection bugs from 
[e-mail] to [e-mail].  After the many great years of service 
Eli has given to Mozilla, it's time for him to move on; he has accepted a 
position at Eazel.  We'll be sad to see him go, and I'll do my best to fill his 
spot...