201832 - Combine nodeName and nodeValue columns

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Other Applications :: DOM Inspector, enhancement)

Description

[Jesse Ruderman]

Not knowing about the nodeValue column, I proposed showing the text of a text
node instead of "#text" in the the left panel in DOM Inspector.

My reasons for thinking this would be a good idea:

* Text tends to be more useful for knowing "where you are in the document" than
element names.

* Showing both nodeName and nodeValue doesn't work very well, because the first
column (nodeName) has varied indentation and has to be very wide.

* nodeValue is blank for most types of nodes.


Alex Vincent was opposed to my idea.  His objections and my responses:

* Suppose the text is "a" and you're looking at an HTML document? The reader
will think it is a link element.
* Accessibility and clarity: don't rely in color alone.
  - Response: Put the text in quotes.

* The column name is called "nodeName", not "nodeValue".
  - Response: Keep "#text" and put the text after it in quotes.
  - Response: The column name would be changed to "Node" anyway, since the
nodeValue column would no longer be necessary.

* Suppose the text node is a really really long one?
  - Response: Truncate the text with ellipses.

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

.

Comment 2

[Alex Vincent [:WeirdAl]]

bz: my apologies for asking jruderman to assign to you; the reason for that is 
that the fix to this would require work on inIDOMView, I think.

Personally I recommend WONTFIX on this bug, as the nodeValue is available to 
the Inspector user.  (But I promised jruderman I wouldn't mark it so.)

Comment 3

[Christopher Aillon (sabbatical, not receiving bugmail)]

Jesse, could you elaborate more on what you epxect to see for, say, each of the
12 current node types?

Comment 4

[Jesse Ruderman]

The following nodes have nodeValues, according to
http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-Core/core.html#ID-1841493061 :

Text nodes: one of the following:
- "foo"
- #text: foo
- #text: "foo"
I prefer the first.

Comment and cdatasection nodes: same as text nodes, with the exception that if
"#text" is omitted for text nodes, "#comment" and "#cdata-section" would not be
omitted.

ProcessingInstruction nodes: I'm not familiar with these nodes, so I don't know
what should be shown in addition to (or instead of) the nodeName.

Attribute nodes: These do not appear in the tree.

Comment 5

[Christopher Aillon (sabbatical, not receiving bugmail)]

Mass re-assigning bugs to [e-mail]

Comment 6

[Firefox Bug Husbandry Bot]

Bulk close. This component is no longer supported or maintained.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1499023

Comment 7

[Firefox Bug Husbandry Bot]

Bulk close. This component is no longer supported or maintained.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1499023