Fine, I'll build my own text editor
- ID
- 20964
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 02 Sep 2026, 1:12 AM
- Fetched
- 04 Sep 2026, 1:53 AM
- Provider
- Hacker News
- Category
- dev-community
- Original URL
- https://dbushell.com/2026/09/01/text-editor/
- Source URL
- https://hnrss.org/best
Summary
- Score
- 5.5
- Created
- 04 Sep 2026, 2:59 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersvibe_coders
What happened
David Bushell documents building a browser-based text editor, first trying <canvas> rendering before switching to contenteditable="plaintext-only" for native text selection, undo history, and accessibility. He notes key gotchas like spellcheck causing input latency spikes and the inaccessibility of canvas-based text rendering.
Why it matters
If you're building any rich-text or code-editing UI in the browser, the contenteditable="plaintext-only" approach with spellcheck/autocorrect disabled is a concrete shortcut to native selection and undo without reinventing them. The canvas approach is a dead end for accessibility.
Discussion angle
The tradeoff between canvas (full rendering control, zero accessibility) vs contenteditable (free accessibility, browser quirks) for building editor-like UIs — and whether anyone should still attempt a custom editor when Monaco/CodeMirror exist.