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> google docs writer editor is so bloody horrible You can thank it to the broken ContentEditable HTML API. Google Docs v1 used it, for v2 Google reinvented the
by frik 11y ago
> google docs writer editor is so bloody horrible
You can thank it to the broken ContentEditable HTML API. Google Docs v1 used it, for v2 Google reinvented the wheel by coding a word processor render engine using one DIVs per line. If only the browser vendors would fix the ContentEditable API, then a Google Docs implementation would need just a few lines of code. Multi column, multi page would be no problem with contenteditable. http://caniuse.com/#feat=contenteditable http://caniuse.com/#feat=contenteditable
Sadly, three of the big four browser vendors have a competitive advantage if their own cloud office suits cannot be reimplemented with a few lines of code.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago> If only the browser vendors would fix the ContentEditable API, then a Google Docs implementation would need just a few lines of code. Google Docs, by nature of its real-time collaboration features, cannot "just" use contentEditable.
- skybrian 11y agoApparently ContentEditable is unfixable: https://medium.com/medium-eng/why-contenteditable-is-terrible-122d8a40e480 https://medium.com/medium-eng/why-contenteditable-is-terribl...
- fsloth 11y agoThanks for the link. I wish all serious discussions about software design would take the time to enumerate the axioms (even if only implicit) used in the design.
- fsloth 11y agoTo me the poor suitability of Google docs to writing traditional technical documentation the most irritating aspect. Automatic table of figures, references, math editor, etc. that have been more or less mainstream in document editors for decades.