Official Google Docs Blog: What’s different about the new Google Docs?
By far the most difficult thing the editor does is figure out where to draw text. For this, we built a new layout engine. Here’s an example of how the new engine works: say you type the letter ‘a’. We notice you pressed the ‘a’ key and respond by drawing a single ‘a’ off-screen. We then measure the width and height of that ‘a’, combine those measurements with the x and y position of your cursor, and place the ‘a’ at the correct spot on the screen. If you’re in the middle of a word, we push the characters after your cursor over. If you’re at the end of a line, the editor moves your word to the next line and pushes any overflow to the lines after it.
more on googledocs.blogspot.com
Amazing piece of front-end programming from Google Docs.
