Multi line text editing on Compose is quite a mess since ver

Question

Multi line text editing on Compose is quite a mess since version 1 4 at least on Android android I ve been doing a lot of testing and receiving user feedback over the last months this evening and here s what I found for those with heavy text editing in their apps like I do Compose 1 4 3 cursor jumps around unexpectedly + composition bug Compose 1 5 4 still those bugs because they were only fixed in alpha releases below Compose 1 6 0 alpha01 text selection handles issue Compose 1 6 0 alpha02 fixes composition bug Compose 1 6 0 alpha08 finally fixes cursor jumping around after 4 months Compose 1 6 beta01 fixes text selection handles but introduces crash when pasting text keyboard not re opening after closing + other crashes So it seems the latest 1 6 0 alpha 08 is the most capable least worse version if you re okay with the visual text selection handles issue Seeing bug fixes only appear in alpha versions has been very disappointing over the last months Hopefully 1 6 beta 2 will be a good one crossed fingers skin tone 3

Halil Ozercan · Answer

Thank you for bringing these issues up < Jacob Ras> We have received similar type of feedback about bug fixes not making it to stable dot releases lingering in alpha cycles for long We have been extra cautious about bringing isolated fixes especially if high priority to the dot releases In the selection case the issue is with the scope of this project Basically compose text selection has been under major rework internally for quite some time The culmination of this work can be seen in the latest alpha releases However the work is not exactly separable so the many fixes could not be cherry picked Also due to the nature of this rework there may have been cases of problems being fixed and coming back up again in another alpha release There simultaneously was also a foundational rework on text input handinling The problems regarding that are being worked on currently

Halil Ozercan · Answer

cc < Grant Toepfer>

Halil Ozercan · Answer

Btw although unrelated to your feedback can you test these scenarios with the experimental BTF2 API if it s possible It ll help us pinpoint the root causes if they are not reproducible

Jacob Ras · Answer

Thanks < Halil Ozercan> glad to hear the priority of updating stable releases is getting attention I ve seen the massive amount of work that s being done on text also in Text2 and am looking forward to seeing where it leads In my use case I ve built a proprietary WYSIWYG editor formatting pictures tables et cetera on top of LazyLists+Text One of the hardest things is getting the focus right moving it around keeping the editing location in view et cetera I ll retest my issues this week with the BTF2 API and will post the results in the tracker good idea bulb

Jacob Ras · Answer

Also a bit offtopic perhaps but rendering large texts is a bit confusing at times On my Pixel 4a I can render 100k+ chars texts It s slow but smooth once loaded in Text not TextField While on production I see Compose crashing over 20k chars already Probably need to do some custom measuring there unless this is an area where Text Field still has room for improvement internally

Grant Toepfer · Answer

gt + other crashes If you can reproduce them send in bugs to the issue tracker Given the beta period we are currently in we ll be keeping an extra keen eye out for crashes and regressions

Grant Toepfer · Answer

As for crashing on 20k chars feel free to create a bug for that as well

Grant Toepfer · Answer

You can link them in this thread after you create them as well that may get them looked at a little more quickly slightly smiling face

Jacob Ras · Answer

Hi < Grant Toepfer> thanks I already created issues I could reproduce or upvoted those already reported My main concern is the bigger text crash as users are blocked from their larger texts sizes like 100k 200k+ apparently happen easy when writing diaries and the like I created a small reproduction project