HTML parser collapses consecutive spaces during setHtml()/toHtml() round-trip

[sghevariyam]

Title:

HTML parser collapses consecutive spaces during setHtml()/toHtml() round-trip

Description:

When using setHtml() with content containing consecutive spaces, the editor/parser collapses all repeated spaces into a single space during parsing/serialization.

Example:

Input HTML:
<p><span>hello            world</span></p>

After setHtml() + toHtml():
<p><span>hello world</span></p>

Expected behavior:
Consecutive spaces should be preserved during HTML round-trip, especially when using:
- &nbsp;
- white-space: pre-wrap
- Unicode non-breaking spaces

Actual behavior:
The parser normalizes whitespace and removes repeated spaces from text nodes.

This causes formatting/layout issues for:
- code-like text
- aligned text
- educational content
- whitespace-sensitive rendering

Environment:
- Android
- Jetpack Compose
- RichTextEditor

Reproduction:
1. Call setHtml() with multiple spaces between words
2. Serialize back using toHtml()
3. Observe that spaces are collapsed into a single space

It appears the internal HTML parser normalizes whitespace during DOM reconstruction.

Would it be possible to:
- preserve consecutive spaces
- support white-space: pre-wrap
- preserve &nbsp; entities
- or provide an option to disable whitespace normalization?

[MohamedRejeb]

Hello
Thanks for reporting this.
Well actually   should work fine, for the white space character it's intended behavior that mimics HTML, currently if you write some HTML with white spaces and try to render it, you should only see a single white space.

But if you try this for example it should remain the same and you can see all the spaces:

<p>hello &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; world</p>