Subj : Re: javascript sample not working - bug in mozilla? plz help
To   : netscape.public.mozilla.jseng,netscape.public.mozilla.dom
From : Brendan Eich <brendan@meer.net>
Date : Sat Jun 07 2003 03:01 pm

Georg Maaß wrote:

> stan k. wrote:
>
>> Just as a note to those looking in newsgroups - I also had to chagne
>> the following to get it to work:
>>
>> objDiv = divColl(i);
>> changed to:
>> objDiv = divColl[i];
>
>
> In Mozilla and W3C DOM collections are variants of arrays. In IE they 
> are special functions. This is the reason. why there the call operator 
> is supported, but not on Mozilla neither any W3C conform implementation. 


Just to be crystal-clear, both forms work in IE, so one should use the 
[] operator for cross-browser portability.

>
>> objDiv = eval(sDivID);
>> changed to
>> objDiv = document.getElementById(sDivID);
>
>
> This uses IE DOM instead of W3C DOM. 


The eval is unnecessary and costly, even in IE.  Another IE-only way to 
write this is window[sDivID] or self[sDivID].  This works because in IE, 
document elements induce properties of the window object, named by id 
attribute values.  But don't use any of that, as Georg's post reinforces 
here -- use document.getElementById for cross-browser, 
open-standards-based scripting.

/be

.