Columns start at 0, not 1
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	Nardog
	Feb 25 2026, 8:19 AM

Description

Steps to replicate the issue (include links if applicable):

Open https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Common.css&action=edit&cm6enable=1&safemode=1
Turn "Syntax" on
Focus the editor
Press Ctrl+Home

What happens?:
The bottom-right part says "1:0". When you use "Go to line" and enter "1:1", the caret moves to after the first character (what any other editor considers 1:2).

What should have happened instead?:
The bottom-right part says "1:1". When you use "Go to line" and enter "1:1", the caret moves to before the first character.

Related Objects

Mentioned In: T418244: Initial position on the status bar

Event Timeline

Nardog created this task.Feb 25 2026, 8:19 AM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptFeb 25 2026, 8:19 AM

Nardog mentioned this in T418244: Initial position on the status bar.Feb 25 2026, 8:20 AM

This is the expected behavior which is consistent with Extension:CodeEditor.

Bhsd moved this task from Backlog to Done on the MediaWiki-extensions-CodeMirror board.Feb 25 2026, 8:48 AM

That Ace/CodeEditor did something poorly is a terrible excuse to continue doing it that defeats the whole point of replacing it. Name an editor besides Ace that considers the initial caret position to be line 1 but column 0.

CodeMirror internally treats the line and column like this. You are requesting something fundamentally incompatible with the CodeMirror library.

OK, I'll defer to @MusikAnimal. It is my opinion that it defies ASTONISH to go against most other editors, including Notepad, TextEdit, Vim, VSCode, Sublime, Notepad++, and gedit.

I generally defer to Bhsd when it comes to upstream CodeMirror, hehe! We might could simply add 1 to the display of the column number, but go-to line and whatever else presumably would then by off by 1.

Questions that come to mind are:

Does the off-by-1 effect the reporting of linting errors from Extension:Linter, TemplateStyles, and Peast?
Can this be fixed upstream?
Should it be fixed upstream?
Does it really matter much anyway?

I do not think it will ever be "fixed" upstream: https://discuss.codemirror.net/t/lezer-generator-errors-warnings-contain-1-based-lines-and-0-based-columns/9409

Well there ya go! I trust that Marijn had very good reason for designing it this way.

Re-declining as it doesn't seem feasible to implement a workaround and it is in the best interest for us to stay inline with upstream CodeMirror.

Columns start at 0, not 1Closed, DeclinedPublicBUG REPORTActions

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Columns start at 0, not 1
Closed, DeclinedPublicBUG REPORT
Actions