Javascript

Javascript Caveats

Javascript & Objects | OnLoad & OnUnLoad | OnMouseOver | Math & Forms | The Date Object | Opening New Browser Windows | Javascript Caveats

While Javascript is fine for opening new browser windows (customized as you wish) and for the simple sorts of examples that we've looked at here, we hesitate to recommend its use for developing more dynamic page elements. For one thing, there are still discrepancies in the way that various features of Javascript are implemented in different browsers.This fact alone can be maddening at times, leading to considerable effort to make an application function properly in all (or even the newer major) browsers. In addition, quite frankly Javascript is a language that has delusions of grandeur. Often, the object-based nature of the language only seems to get in the way. (The discussion of objects and object-based programming definintely gets in the way of straightforward expositions of the language in many books on Javascript.) One suspects that the truly useful (and reliable) features of the language could have been implemented in a way that would make the language easier to learn and use, and quite possibly more stable accross different browsers.