[thelist] How do I know if a piece of JS is DOM or browser specific?

Timothy J. Luoma lists at tntluoma.com
Tue Oct 15 21:09:00 CDT 2002


Peter-Paul Koch wrote:

 > This is not an exact comparision. Take forms, for instance. In the
 > newest browsers you can access a form by
 >
 > document.getElementById('form_id')
 >
 > and your form validation script will work. However, this is not the
 > best way to access forms. Simple form validation *can* work in
 > Netscape 2, and therefore, in my opinion, *should* work in Netscape
 > 2. This means that you have to use the old Level 0 DOM
 >
 > document.forms['form_name']
 >
 > In general you should use the Level 0 DOM (the one that Netscape
 > standardized before W3C existed) whenever possible. This is the best
 > way to program JavaScripts.

Ok, I can understand the rationale there.  So if I used

	document.forms['form_name']

you would expect it to not only work in DOM compliant browsers but also
"moldy oldies"?


 > It needs to be able to redraw pages without reloading them.
 > Understanding the Opera 7 pre-publicity correctly, it will support
 > exactly this.

Such as being able to change background colors, etc?  If so then that is
a problem we ran into with CSS as well (where :hover only worked on
links, and only for some things)

 > Maybe it would be best for you to stick to the W3C DOM and the Level
 > 0 (Netscape) DOM and forget about intermediate stuff like
 > document.all and document.layers . Don't forget about Level 0,
 > though. It's much simpler than the W3C DOM and not using Level 0
 > where you could use it is bad coding practice, in my opinion.

ok... (... time passes as Tim hits Google up for 'dom 0')...

Hrm... lookee here:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~ppk/js/dom0.html

:-)


 > The problem is that simple JS books aren't written for your situation
 > but for people who want to learn JavaScript in a hurry to code sites
 > for money, which means cross-browser compatibility goes before
 > anything else.

Exactamundo


 > I recommend the Glasshaus book, "Practical JavaScript for the Usable
 > Web" by Wilton, Williams and Li. It strikes the right balance
 > between theoretical and practical information.

and onto the wishlist she goes ;-)

Thanks

TjL



--
OperaBlog: Beyond30                      http://tntluoma.com/beyond30
30 Days to becoming an Opera Lover     http://www.tntluoma.com/switch
Opera Panels / Sidebars                  http://tntluoma.com/sidebars





More information about the thelist mailing list