ierange: Implementing W3C DOM ranges for IE

Tim Cameron Ryan has written a script to work around the differences between an IE Text Range and a W3C Range. I applaud his courage; I once considered doing this but the incompatibilities were terrible and I decided I needed a little more practice; practice I never got because my career started moving away from production coding.

DOM, IE | Permalink

Comparing Document Position

Two years ago I wrote an entry about compareDocumentPosition() and how it can overcome Firefox's annoying disregard of the useful contains() method.

Now it turns out that John Resig has been studying compareDocumentPosition() ever since, and has come up with a way to emulate it in IE. As usual with such ideas, once you understand what's going on it's extremely simple and you're left wondering "why didn't I think of this?".

While he was at it he also rewrote my getElementsByTagNames() function.

Great work.

DOM | Permalink

Why do DOM interfaces suck so much?

Dustin takes issue with ugly DOM interfaces; especially those that require endless lists of parameters nobody ever uses; for instance window.find or initMouseEvent.

The most striking example remains the third argument of addEventListener: people rarely use event capturing, so why not make this argument optional with the default set to false (bubbling). I agree completely.

DOM | Permalink

Who’s Got Style?

Over on the YUI blog Nicholas Zakas takes a look at dynamically generating a <style> element. Appending a text node with new style rules works in all browsers but IE; while in IE you should use the cssText property of the element.

DOM | Permalink

SnookSurvey: Element Attributes in JavaScript

Do we use img.src = 'value' or img.setAttribute('src','value')? It appears to be a simple question, but there's much more to it than meets the eye, I think. Comment 34 contains my answer.

DOM | Permalink

Accessing the document inside an iframe

Finally a good summary of accessing a document inside an iframe.

DOM | Permalink

Unobtrusive connected select boxes - yet another solution approach

Chris has a simple solution for creating connected select boxes in an unobtrusive way: use optgroup. Interesting thought.

DOM | Permalink

Operation Aborted

Shaun explains how a <base> tag can mess up scripts that modify the page header before it's loaded completely.

DOM | Permalink

DHTML JavaScript Benchmark (DOM and innerHTML)

A W3C DOM vs. innerHTML benchmark. Its conclusions match mine: innerHTML is much faster than "real" W3C DOM methods.

Benchmarks, DOM | Permalink

Leaky Scripts

Dan wonders whether memory leaks are such a big deal. Sure, they occur, but does it really matter in a lightly scripted page? Interesting question.

DOM, IE | Permalink

Faster DOM Queries (reply)

Dean Edwards responds to Alex. I agree with his criticism of the specific example, and right now Dean is the Supreme Honcho of Onload, so this entry is well worth reading.

DOM | Permalink

Fast DOM Queries in Today’s Browsers

Alex Russell proposes a non-valid hack. In general I agree with him, but I don't like his specific example.

DOM | Permalink

The DOM And Screen Readers

How to write an advanced form validation script that's usable in a screen reader. The trick is very simple.

Accessibility, DOM, Screen readers | Permalink

Alternatives to innerHTML

A little DOM tutorial for innerHTML junkies. Interesting approach.

DOM | Permalink

The innerHTML dilemma

For once I disagree with Jeremy: the innerHTML property is a beautiful invention that makes DOM scripting much simpler, and I don't have the slightest compunction about using it. I hope Jeremy will work out his "issues", because innerHTML is just too good to ignore.

DOM | Permalink

Introducing DomCorners

An interesting, and especially SHORT script for adding rounded corners to an element of your choice. It begins to look as if JavaScript is the best alternative for this task, since it doesn't require you to insert tag soup into your XHTML just to provide for the corners.

DOM | Permalink

DOM vs. innerHTML pitfalls

Two interesting innerHTML tidbits.

DOM | Permalink

Reserved ID Values?

Eric Meyer discovered that the use of a few ID values that have special meaning in the old document.all DOM may cause IE to crash.

DOM | Permalink

Firefox document.all caveat

Scott Andrew discovered that Firefox does support document.all, which it's supposed to ignore. So Firefox now executes supposedly IE-only code branches.
Annoying, but since we haven't needed document.all at all since IE 4 went down, it shouldn't be too big a problem for standards aware JavaScript sites.

DOM, Mozilla | Permalink

Faster DHTML in 12 Steps

MS tips for faster DOM Scripting in Explorer. Contains benchmark tests (I thought I was the only one who did that). The tests could use a bit longer loops (1000 iterations instead of the 100 currently used), but all in all the tips have an experimental basis and can serve as a first step towards real benchmarking.

Benchmarks, DOM, IE | Permalink

Mouseover DOM Inspector

This tool might be useful. Run it, mouse over an element and see information. Only drawback: it doesn't work on generated elements. Turn off and then on to solve this problem.

DOM, Tools | Permalink