Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition
by Danny Goodman 

This errata page lists errors outstanding in the most recent printing.

If you have technical questions or error reports, you can send them to
booktech@oreilly.com.  Please specify the printing date of your copy.

This page was updated March 14, 2006.

Here's a key to the markup:
	[page-number]: serious technical mistake
	{page-number}: minor technical mistake
	<page-number>: important language/formatting problem
	(page-number): language change or minor formatting problem
	?page-number?: reader question or request for clarification


Confirmed errors:


(84)  typo in Table 4-3. postRight should be posRight



{85}  getPropertyValue() requires background-color instead of backgroundColor.
This is stated in the reference section, but it should be mentioned here as well.



{89-90}  seekLayer function.
If this function finds a match in the recursion, it doesn't stop.  This is
extra work. To fix, add "if (theObj) break" right after the recursion call.
Also, I would think that the depth first search it does is also extra work.
It would be better to look at all the objects at the current level before
trying to recurse.

AUTHOR'S REPLY:

I agree that adding the statement "if (theObj) break" below the first code
line on p.90 would avoid extraneous processing.



[167]  final paragraph;
First sentence says "Set the cancelBubble property to false..."

This should read "Set the cancelBubble property to true..." because the previous
paragraph states that "false" is the default value. Also, the example (continued at
the top of p168) sets the property to "true".

 

(203) Very near the bottom seems to say that Onmouseout is
      available on all or most targets in Version 4 browsers, but it
      doesn't mention Onmouseover, which seems non-symmetric.  I
      suspect you meant 'onmouseup' instead.  In either case NN4.8 on
      Linux doesn't fit.  I can get an Onmousemove anywhere on
      the Window object but only over <a> for layers objects. (I didn't
      try document)

AUTHOR'S REPLY:

Yes, in the fourth line from the bottom, the word onmouseout should be Onmouseup.

Assigning onmousemove to the document object works (as demonstrated in my
element dragging code example).


{281} Autocomplete;
 The default value for autocomplete should be "none (set by user)". 
The autocomplete attribute is somehow missing from the <input> tag discussion starting on p.327.

I see that the autocomplete property is also missing from the 'form' and
'input type="password"' and 'input type="text"' discussions starting on pp. 683, 744, and 759, respectively.



(306)  "Element-Specific Attributes" section and between "align" and "datafld" sections;
The "allowtransparency" attribute of the "iframe" element is missing from the list of
"Element-specific Attributes", and more significantly the section to describe the
attribute is also missing. 

AUTHOR: The reader is correct about this inadvertent omission. There should be a
section before the 'datafld' section as follows:

allowtransparency                        NN n/a     IE 5.5    HTML n/a
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
allowtransparency="featureSwitch"

Controls whether the background plane of the iframe element is transparent
or opaque. To allow the main document to show through the iframe, set the
allowtransparency attribute to true and either leave the iframe's
background-color style attribute at its default setting (transparent) or set
it explicitly to transparent. Note that this transparency affects the iframe
element, independent of any document loaded into the iframe. Therefore, if
you want a background style to affect only the iframe, you must set the
allowtransparency attribute of the iframe to true and set the background of
the element that appears behind any document loaded into the iframe
(provided the document's background is transparent). An allowtransparency
attribute setting of false (the default) does not allow background styles
associated with the iframe element to be visible (but background styles in
the iframe's nested document will be visible).

Example
<DEFANGED_iframe src="quotes.html" width="150" height="90"
allowtransparency="true"></iframe>

Value
Boolean string value: true | false

Default    false

Object Model Reference
[window.]document.getElementById(elementID).allowTransparency



[363] Your book Dynamic HTML The Definitive Reference 2nd Edition says it
covers up to Netscape 7.0/Mozilla 1.0.  The <marquee> tag is recognized
by NN 7, but the book says it is not on page 363.  This was actually why
I bought the book.  NN 7 recognizes marquees, but I was trying to tweak
one of the attributes to make it work a specific way.  Oddly enough,
Mozilla 1.1 does not recognize marquees.

AUTHOR: For the most part, this reader is correct. Support for the marquee
element is included in Netscape 7.0, but it was added to the Mozilla branch for
Mozilla 1.0.1 (from which the final Netscape 7.0 was built). This occurred
after DHTMLTDR2 went to bed.

But there is more to this (sordid) story. The implementation in Mozilla (at
least through 1.2) is incomplete (compared to the proprietary Microsoft
implementation) and rather buggy. It is implemented not as a separate
element, but as a div element associated with an internal style sheet
definition that governs the behavior of the element (via Mozilla's XBL
mechanism for customizing the engine). The following element attributes are
recognized in NN7/Moz:
  direction
  scrollamount
  scrolldelay
  width (but not height)

Corresponding DOM properties (direction, scrollAmount, scrollDelay, and
width) are also supported (along with a handful of other proprietary ones),
but are read-only in NN7/Moz. Two methods (start(), stop()) are also
supported in NN7/Moz (pp.788-793).

Contrary to the reader's observation, the marquee element is available in
Mozilla 1.0.1, 1.1, and 1.2 (among the final release versions).

The engineering/marketing/aesthetic debate surrounding the inclusion of this
non-W3C DOM, MS-proprietary element in Mozilla was one of the most heated I
had seen during Mozilla's development. The argument was settled (not to
everyone's satisfaction) in August 2002.



{410}  1st paragraph;
the multiple attribute of the <select> tag is described as having no effect if size
is set to 1, and yielding a pop-up menu.

In IE 5 and 6, a one-line scrollable list is displayed if both multiple and size=1
are specified. This is useful, e.g. as a way to implement a spinbox control.

The error is repeated on page 411 in the first paragraph, describing the size
attribute.

AUTHOR: The reader is correct for IE/Windows.  IE for the Mac (and Safari betas)
automatically expand the dimensions of the select element to a default
height of four rows when you turn on the multiple attribute.


(470), paragraph 2, line 6 reads
... Text references to Netscape 6 automatically impy...
Change "impy" to "imply".


(472), paragraph 2, line 6 reads
... The letters a
Change "a" to "A"



{486} and {488}, cite and dateTime.
They both refer to <quote> when instead you meant <q>.  And, contrary to your
text, in Chapter 8 neither <blockquote> nor <q> have these properties listed.

AUTHOR'S REPLY:

You're right that <quote> element should be <q>, but only on p.486. On page
488, the dateTime property should apply only to the del and ins elements. In
line with the text, the <blockquote> and <q> tag references _do_ show the
cite attribute.



[584]  2nd Para;
The last sentence that says:
"But this is not the system clipboard (for security reasons)."
This sentence should be deleted.



{619} doesn't discuss the links[] object listed in the table on p.609.



{877} 'media', contrary to what you say, can be a string of comma separated values.

AUTHOR'S REPLY:

Yes, the Value should read: A string consisting of one or more (in a
comma-delimited list) of the following values: all | print | screen.



{927} says that document.styleSteets[].media is a string.
In Mozilla 1.7, it is an 'Object MediaList', and useless as far as I can tell.

AUTHOR'S REPLY:

I have this discussion on pp.925-6. The Mozilla version available at press
time had not yet implemented the property for me to see whether it was done
the way the W3C DOM says it should be (although it had included the
MediaList object). Mozilla has since implemented it and correctly at that.
IE6, however, still reports the value as a string (as does IE7 through B2).



{960}  TextRange section, 2nd para, 6th line;
Text says "Once the range has been narrowed to the target text, assign values to its
htmlText and text properties...."

You can only assign values to "text," not to "htmlText" which is only read-only. Use
pasteHTML() to change HTML.


{1131}  first line;
An optional zero-based integer of the last item of the subset from the current array.
should be:
An optional zero-based integer of the item after the end of the subset from the current array.


{1039}  First paragraph;
This paragraph hints that a URL in a CSS is relative to the URL of the current
document.  This is not what the CSS specs say.

CSS 1: Partial URLs are interpreted relative to the source of the style sheet, not
relative to the document:

CSS 2.1: In order to create modular style sheets that are not dependent on the
absolute location of a resource, authors may use relative URIs. Relative URIs (as
defined in [RFC1808]) are resolved to full URIs using a base URI. RFC 1808, section
3, defines the normative algorithm for this process. For CSS style sheets, the base
URI is that of the style sheet, not that of the source document.

AUTHOR:
I think it's worthy of a clarification. Of course when the CSS rules are in
the source document (e.g., in a  <!-- <DEFANGED_STYLE> tag set or assigned to the
style attribute of an element), relative URLs will be relative to the current
document; but for imported .css files, the relativity is to the location of
the .css file, which may or may not be in the same directory as the HTML
document.



{1096}  You say padding is available in NN4, but under the 'Applies To' section,
you don't say what elements it applies to.

AUTHOR'S REPLY:

The Applies To section should reference Netscape 4 where it currently
references Netscape 6.



[1131]  "Returned Value" line for push() (2nd section);
"The value pushed into the array"
should be:
"The length (integer) of the array after appending the newest item(s)"



(1132) splice can delete 0 elements, not just 1 or more
The phrase should read "zero or more".



{1160, 1161}  parseInt and parseFloat.
You say the string must begin with numerals, but negative numbers begin with a
minus sign.  I don't know about beginning with a plus sign or a decimal point.

AUTHOR'S REPLY:

Decimals aren't allowed, but + and - are. The string parameter descriptions
for both functions should read:  Any string that begins with one or more
numerals (optionally, preceded by + or -).



{1186}  match()
Without the /g option, element 0 contains the matched text.
This is described in the Definitive Guide to JavaScript.

AUTHOR'S REPLY:

Yes, the discussion section and Returned Value needs to be fleshed out more.
Without the /g option, the method returns not only a one-element array, but
an object with index and input properties. I'll fix this in the next edition.



{Appendix B}  It would have been helpful to have the symbols printed as
well as the descriptions.  This would be much faster to scan for what the
reader wants.

AUTHOR'S REPLY:

I wholeheartedly agree and will try to get production to accede to my
continued request in the next edition.