const $editor = document.querySelector('.editor');
const state = {
 cursorPosition: 0,
 contents: 'hello world'.split(''),
 isFocused: false,
};


const $cursor = document.createElement('span');
$cursor.classList.add('cursor');
$cursor.innerText = '᠎'; // Mongolian vowel separator

const renderEditor = () => {
  const $contents = state.contents
    .map(char => {
      const $span = document.createElement('span');
      $span.innerText = char;
      return $span;
    });
  
  $contents.splice(state.cursorPosition, 0, $cursor);
  
  $editor.innerHTML = '';
  $contents.forEach(el => $editor.append(el));
}

document.addEventListener('click', (ev) => {
  if (ev.target === $editor) {
    $editor.classList.add('focus');
    state.isFocused = true;
  } else {
    $editor.classList.remove('focus');
    state.isFocused = false;
  }
});

document.addEventListener('keydown', (ev) => {
  if (!state.isFocused) return;
  
  switch(ev.key) {
    case 'ArrowRight':
      state.cursorPosition = Math.min(
        state.contents.length, 
        state.cursorPosition + 1
      );
      renderEditor();
      return;
    case 'ArrowLeft':
      state.cursorPosition = Math.max(
        0, 
        state.cursorPosition - 1
      );
      renderEditor();
      return;
    case 'Backspace':
      if (state.cursorPosition === 0) return;
      delete state.contents[state.cursorPosition-1];
      state.contents = state.contents.filter(Boolean);
      state.cursorPosition = Math.max(
        0, 
        state.cursorPosition - 1
      );
      renderEditor();
      return;
    default:
      // This is very naive
      if (ev.key.length > 1) return;
      state.contents.splice(state.cursorPosition, 0, ev.key);
      state.cursorPosition += 1;
      renderEditor();
      return;
  }  
});

renderEditor();

.editor {
  position: relative;
  min-height: 100px;
  max-height: max-content;
  width: 100%;
  border: black 1px solid;
}

.editor.focus {
  border-color: blue;
}

.editor.focus .cursor {
  position: absolute;
  border: black solid 1px;
  border-top: 0;
  border-bottom: 0;
  animation-name: blink;
  animation-duration: 1s;
  animation-iteration-count: infinite;
}

@keyframes blink {
  from {opacity: 0;}
  50% {opacity: 1;}
  to {opacity: 0;}
}

const editor = document.querySelector(".editor");
editor.innerHTML = parse(
  "For **bold** two stars.\nFor *italic* one star. Some more **bold**."
);

editor.addEventListener("input", () => {
  //get current cursor position
  const sel = window.getSelection();
  const node = sel.focusNode;
  const offset = sel.focusOffset;
  const pos = getCursorPosition(editor, node, offset, { pos: 0, done: false });
  if (offset === 0) pos.pos += 0.5;

  editor.innerHTML = parse(editor.innerText);

  // restore the position
  sel.removeAllRanges();
  const range = setCursorPosition(editor, document.createRange(), {
    pos: pos.pos,
    done: false,
  });
  range.collapse(true);
  sel.addRange(range);
});

function parse(text) {
  //use (.*?) lazy quantifiers to match content inside
  return (
    text
      .replace(/\*{2}(.*?)\*{2}/gm, "****") // bold
      .replace(/(?*") // italic
      // handle special characters
      .replace(/\n/gm, "
")
      .replace(/\t/gm, "	")
  );
}

// get the cursor position from .editor start
function getCursorPosition(parent, node, offset, stat) {
  if (stat.done) return stat;

  let currentNode = null;
  if (parent.childNodes.length == 0) {
    stat.pos += parent.textContent.length;
  } else {
    for (let i = 0; i = stat.pos) {
      range.setStart(parent, stat.pos);
      stat.done = true;
    } else {
      stat.pos = stat.pos - parent.textContent.length;
    }
  } else {
    for (let i = 0; i 
.editor {
  height: 100px;
  width: 400px;
  border: 1px solid #888;
  padding: 0.5rem;
  white-space: pre;
}

em, strong{
  font-size: 1.3rem;
}