Chapter 15. The Essential Cross-Browser HTML DOM

Whether or not the average web developer is aware of it, it is out there, unseen and unnoticed, but nevertheless out there. Allow me to explain before you decide that I’ve popped a gasket and need to be taken to a nice soft room, the kind with padded walls. I am referring to the HTML Document Object Model—yes, that often ignored application programming interface that can be both a blessing and a curse.

Yes, the average web developer uses the HTML DOM only to the extent that is absolutely necessary to perform the job, and no further. The reasons for this are many, ranging from the fact that in the early days of web browsers, everybody did their own thing, to the fact that client-side code is often ...

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