Subj : Redefining firstChild on prototype in firefox
To   : netscape.public.mozilla.jseng
From : Mcginkel
Date : Wed Jun 08 2005 08:44 am

I am trying to change the default behaviour from firefox/mozilla to
behave exactly like IE for the firstChild property of an HTMLElement. I
want comment- and text-nodes with only whitespace to be skipped just
like IE does.

I use the following code to get this behaviour :

HTMLDivElement.prototype.__defineGetter__("firstChild", function() {
    var node = this.childNodes[0];
    while (node && (node.nodeType == 8 || ( (node.nodeType == 3) &&
!(/[^\t\n\r ]/.test(node.data))) ))
    {
         node = node.nextSibling;
    }
    return node;
});

The code works, but I have to do this for every type of Element
(HTMLDivElement, HTMLTableElement etc) while I would like to do this
once on HTMLElement so all elements get this behaviour.
I can do this with properties that are new (outerHTML etc), but not
with existing properties in firefox/mozilla.

Any ideas if this is possible ?

Regards,

Kees van Ginkel

.