get pos of cursor in a text area

[sde]

is there any way to get the current string position of where the cursor is in a text area with javascript?

[sammy]

The only thing i can think of is to make a virtual grid for the text area, and make each individual element of that grid have a onmouseover event and when its fired, it can report itself, and i think that all spaces are evened out for text areas
for example:
iiii
OOOO
take up the same amount of space
at least it does in the text area, i know it doesnt when i post this thread