Hacking at 0300

Code and demo are on github.

I wanted to have a simple word count on the Kavanot editor, and this:

$('span.wordcount').text($('#editor').val().split(/\s+/).length+' words');

is enough for me. Keeping it live is straightforward:

$('#editor').on('input', function(){
  $('span.wordcount').text(this.value.split(/\s+/).length+' words');
});

But that won't show the word count when the page is first loaded. The ready event only works on document, and there isn't any event that just fires immediately (as far as I can see). So I created one.

$(selector).on('immediate', function() {...}); just calls the function with the relevant element as this. That's pretty much worthless, but you can combine the events:

$('#editor').on('immediate input', function(){
  $('span.wordcount').text(this.value.split(/\s+/).length+' words');
});

And now the word count shows immediately and is live, and remains DRY.