microsoft/Terminal

UIA in conhost: incorrect word boundaries when text is selected

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#11,809 opened on Nov 23, 2021

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Area-AccessibilityArea-OutputHelp WantedIssue-BugPriority-1Product-Conhost

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Description

Windows Terminal version

Version of OpenConsole included with the wt 1.12 release.

Windows build number

10.0.22000.348

Other Software

NVDA master (2022.1) with UIA.

Steps to reproduce

Paste the following text into a conhost. On my system, this line wraps at the word "upgrade":

tree.IncompatibleFormatError: This file is too new for the currently running version of Treemendous (0.0.0). Please upgrade to Treemendous 42.0.0 or later.

Then:

  • Select a word, such as by moving to the top of the console and searching for the word "please" with CTRL+f.
  • navigate forward in the window by word.

Expected Behavior

word boundaries are correctly calculated: after the wrapping, NVDA says "upgrade", "to", "Treemendous", etc.

Actual Behavior

NVDA reads from the start of the line up to some arbitrary point, can't tell what's going on???

Contributor guide

Research direction
Investigate how conhost calculates word boundaries for UIA text patterns, especially after line wrapping. Look at the selection handler and UIA provider code to understand why word navigation fails when text is selected.
Tech stack
cpp
Domain
accessibilitybackend
Issue type
Bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
Half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
Git
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
60