773559 - When a word is preceded by multiple (collapsed) spaces, selecting the word invisibly selects a leading space

Status: NEW

(Core :: DOM: Selection, defect, P5)

Description

[Jesse Ruderman]

Attachment: testcase

1. Load the testcase.
2. Select the 'D' by dragging from just left of the 'D' to the right of the 'D'.

or

1. Load the testcase.
2. Double-click the 'D'. (Assuming you're on Mac, where layout.word_select.eat_space_to_next_word is false)

Result: Although it looks like only the 'D' is selected, a leading space is also selected. (This doesn't happen with the other letters, and it doesn't happen in Chrome.)

I noticed this when copying a crash signature from Socorro to Bugzilla.

Comment 1

[Aryeh Gregor (:ayg) (no longer with Mozilla)]

This kind of selection should simply be impossible for users to create.  Ideally, we'd define some selection normalization algorithm and apply it after any user interaction changes the selection, and it should ban endpoints like this.  (Of course, scripts should be able to make selections like this if they wanted to be annoying.)

You don't even have to select the whole "D".  Click in between the C and the D, somewhere after the midpoint, and drag slightly to the right.  You'll select a single space, but it won't be visible.  It looks like the first half of the whitespace corresponds to the first space, and the second half to the second space.  The whole thing should correspond to both.

Comment 2

[Jens Stutte [:jstutte]]

Bulk-downgrade of unassigned, >=5 years untouched DOM/Storage bugs' priority.

If you have reason to believe this is wrong (especially for the severity), please write a comment and ni :jstutte.