[thelist] DW code - why "return XXX" within onLoad?

David Prowak prowak at yahoo.com
Sat Dec 30 09:22:08 CST 2000


Jeff,

But the code that is created by DW3 is connected to
the
onLoad event handler.  It's the fact that returning a
boolean value to the onLoad event handler, which has
no effect, that has me confused.  Why is DW3 doing
this?  Is it just garbage code?  Or is there some
reason that I am overlooking?

TIA,
Dave

--- jeff <jeff at members.evolt.org> wrote:
> david,
> 
> :~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> : From: David Prowak
> :
> : Why the return document.MM_returnValue?  I
> : thought the return used in this manner only
> : made a difference when used with the onClick
> : event handler.
> :~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> the return statement is kind of an odd little
> beasty.  it has several uses.
> the first, and most obvious is to return a value
> from a function to whatever
> called that function.  like this:
> 
> function addNumbers(num1, num2)
> {
>   sum = parseInt(num1) + parseInt(num2);
>   return sum;
> }
> 
> alert(addNumbers(2,2));
> 
> what happens in the alert() is the addNumbers()
> function is called.  this
> function takes two arguments - the two numbers to be
> added together.  it
> forces the arguments to numbers and then adds them
> together, storing that
> value in a variable called sum.  then, it returns
> that value and the result
> is displayed in the alert().
> 
> the other use is to affect the behavior of event
> handlers.  some event
> handlers can except a boolean - true or false -
> return statement and their
> execution will be based on the boolean.  for
> example, if you return false in
> the onSubmit event handler of the <form> tag, the
> form will not submit.  it
> overrides the forms default behavior of submitting. 
> you can return false in
> the onClick event handler of a button <input>,
> canceling the click of the
> button.  where it gets confusing is with the
> onMouseover event handler of
> the <a> tag.  the default behavior of the <a> tag is
> to display the value of
> the href attribute.  if you don't tell the browser
> you want to override that
> behavior, setting the window.status will have no
> effect.  the way you do
> this is by returning true after trying to set it in
> the onMouseover.  this
> tells the browser to use the window.status and not
> execute it's default
> behavior.
> 
> so, in a roundabout way i'm trying to tell you that
> macromedia is returning
> a boolean of true to the onMouseover event handler
> to override the browser's
> default behavior of displaying the value of the href
> attribute and tell it
> to display the status text instead.
> 
> good luck,
> 
> .jeff
> 
> name://jeff.howden
> game://web.development
> http://www.evolt.org/
> mailto:jeff at members.evolt.org
> 
> 
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