class Hpricot::Elements

def self.expand(ele1, ele2, excl=false)
  ary = []
  offset = excl ? -1 : 0
  if ele1 and ele2
    # let's quickly take care of siblings
    if ele1.parent == ele2.parent
      ary = ele1.parent.children[ele1.node_position..(ele2.node_position+offset)]
    else
      # find common parent
      p, ele1_p = ele1, [ele1]
      ele1_p.unshift p while p.respond_to?(:parent) and p = p.parent
      p, ele2_p = ele2, [ele2]
      ele2_p.unshift p while p.respond_to?(:parent) and p = p.parent
      common_parent = ele1_p.zip(ele2_p).select { |p1, p2| p1 == p2 }.flatten.last
      child = nil
      if ele1 == common_parent
        child = ele2
      elsif ele2 == common_parent
        child = ele1
      end
      if child
        ary = common_parent.children[0..(child.node_position+offset)]
      end
    end
  end
  return Elements[*ary]
end