[Strategize] Editors

[ferndot]

As we support more and more formats, we may need to use different editors for different file types. For instance, WebODF for XML files, Midas for HTML files, and a plain-text editor for TXT.

This issue is for brainstorming the methods that we could use to accomplish this objective.

[ferndot]

One idea that I had was to create a module (using the system from #194) for each editor. The app could select and load the desired editor based on the file mimetype.

[twiss]

I think the idea you mentioned in #201:

What do you think about moving the formatting toolbar into the editor? This would reduce a lot of the cross-frame communication, and allow for different features for different file types.

makes a ton of sense. Although that's still tricky, because if you want to keep the hide-keyboard button you'd have to replicate it in every editor, which is also bad.

[jackd1]

We could maybe have a template editor, containing necessary modules for all editors for things like communication with the main document. Then we could just inject other modules depending on the document being edited.

[twiss]

I think the idea you mentioned in #201:

What do you think about moving the formatting toolbar into the editor? (...)

makes a ton of sense.

OTOH, the main benefit of having support for many file types in one app (as opposed to many apps) is a unified UI. In other words, if we add WebODF (#189) we might want to redo its toolbar to be the same as the one we have. That's probably easier if we keep the toolbar out of the editors.

This would reduce a lot of the cross-frame communication, and allow for different features for different file types.

We could hide some buttons based on file type.

Although that's still tricky, because if you want to keep the hide-keyboard button you'd have to replicate it in every editor, which is also bad.

[twiss]

In the same vein, it might make sense to pick a single editor (be it designMode or WebODF or ...) and convert everything to and from that, to make sure every file type behaves exactly the same.

[ferndot]

That's probably easier if we keep the toolbar out of the editors.

These are the pros/cons that I can discern for each approach (feel free to add some):

• Toolbar inside of editor
  • Pro: Encapsulation of features
  • Pro: Simple editor layout modification
  • Con: Separate maintenance of each toolbar UI
• Toolbar outside of editor
  • Pro: Unified UI
  • Con: Difficult feature differentiation
  • Con: Difficult editor layout modifications

In the same vein, it might make sense to pick a single editor (be it designMode or WebODF or ...) and convert everything to and from that, to make sure every file type behaves exactly the same.

@twiss that is what we are doing now, and it poses some challenges (even conversion from plain text to HTML had some errors). Still, it would be simpler...