[thelist] form id instead of name?

validating a page with a form on it today, i was reminded that the NAME
attribute is no longer valid in xhtml strict...

   <form name="theform" ...

and that i should be using the ID attribute instead

   <form id="theform" ...

okay, but when i did that, all my javascript stopped working

for example, i have this radio button, and i can no longer set it using
javascript

   document.theform.thebutton[0].checked=true

presumably because it can no longer find "theform"

is there different syntax for using the ID? 

right now i've just left the NAME in there...


rudy