<editor> with no events?

Hi, (sorry for x-post to dev.extensions; hadn't realized you have a
dedicated discussion here)...

I want to have live-changing syntax coloring within an
<editor> element (or equivalent), but it seems <editor> has no events
(and even disallows the document from dealing with them when turned
on). Is there any way to overcome this?

(As an aside, I'm curious why the HTML5 spec would insist the events
by disabled in the first place.)

thanks,
Brett