JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 3rd edition
by David Flanagan

Unconfirmed error reports are from readers.  They have not yet been 
approved or disproved by the author or editor and represent solely the
opinion of the reader.

This page was updated August 26, 2002.

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


UNCONFIRMED errors and suggestions from readers:


(97) end of paragragh that begins with "In other words":
The last word should be changed from "operators" to "operator".


{156}  5th paragraph;
The line:
"a = new Array(10); // a.length == 10 (empty elements 0-9 defined)"
Should be:
"a = new Array(10); // a.length == 1 (element 0 defined)".

This is what happens using NN 6.0.
This implies that the 6th paragraph on pg 154 is also wrong..ie,
"var a = new Array(10);"


(158) first two lines under "9.2.1 join()":

	converts all the elements of an array to a string and 
	concatenates them 

should be changed to 

	converts each array element to a string and concatenates 
	the resulting strings


(160) last paragraph (above example code):
"no elements are" should be "no element is".


(169) 2nd paragraph of section 10.1.4:
The final sentence of this paragraph in the 3/00 print reads:

	And /(ab|cd)+|ef)/ matches either the string "ef", or one 
	or more repititions of either of the strings "ab" or "cd".

The initial error appears to be (to quote emacs): "mismatched set of 
parentheses":

	/((ab|cd)+|ef)/

It appears that either way, the code will match correctly, but it's generally 
a good idea to group properly by matched sets of parentheses.


{215}  3rd paragraph;
The statement must include 'LANGUAGE' --
it is shown as:
<SCRIPT SRC="../../javascript/util.js"><SCRIPT>
This statement does not work.

To make it work it should include 'LANGUAGE' --
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=JavaScript" SRC="../../javascript/util.js"><SCRIPT>


[220] code:
This code is incorrect

	<!--&{navigator.platform =3D=3D "win95"};
	<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=3D"Javascript">
   	    ... // Javascript code
	</ SCRIPT>
	- --->

"win 95" should be "win32".

More seriously, if {navigator.platform =3D=3D "win95"} is a = Javascript 
function that needs to be inside <SCRIPT LANGUAGE=3D"Javascript">=20. So the 
code should be thus:

	<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=3D"Javascript">
	<!--&{navigator.platform =3D=3D "win95"};
   	    ... // Javascript code
	- --->
	</ SCRIPT>


(259) second paragraph of subsection 14.1.2:
To alleviate a confusing antecedent situation, I recommend changing 
"attributes like onClick and onMouseOver of HTML elements" to "HTML-element 
attributes such as onClick and onMouseOver".


[302] 2nd paragraph:
"Invoking the submit() method of a Form submits the form, exactly as if the 
user had clicked on a Submit button...." disagrees with the Form.onsubmit 
description on page 512.

As far as I can tell, the Form.onsubmit description is correct when it says 
that the Form.onsubmit() method DOES NOT GET CALLED if form.submit() is called
directly.

This is a potentially significant difference between pressing a Submit button 
and calling Form.submit().


[313] last section, defining the error msg:
There are too many lines for viewing in the Netscape Alert box. Eliminate all 
but the first defining line of msg. I.e., replace
	    
	    msg  = "______________________________________________________\n\n"
    msg += "The form was not submitted because of the following error(s).\n";
    msg += "Please correct these error(s) and re-submit.\n";
    msg += "______________________________________________________\n\n"

with the single line:
   
	msg = "Please correct these error(s) and re-submit.\n";

Also, there are numeric errors. Min and max are not displayed as scripted. 
Replace
    
    if (empty_fields) {
        msg += "- The following required field(s) are empty:" 
                + empty_fields + "\n";
        if (errors) msg += "\n";
    }
    msg += errors;
    alert(msg);
    return false;
}
</SCRIPT>

with the following:
    
    if (empty_fields) 
        msg += "- The following required field(s) are empty:\n" 
                + empty_fields + "\n";
    if (errors) {
        	msg += "\n";
        	msg += errors;
    }
    alert(msg);
    return false;
}
</SCRIPT>


[example 13.5]  per the online except from ch13: example 13.5;
the code parses based on comma separated arguments,
but URLs use ampersand as separator characters.


[327] 5 lines from bottom:
This is part of the DynEl.js cass listing. When I attempt to run it under 
Netscape I get a message that "this layer has no properties" at line 83 of the
program (downloaded from your web site).


{363}
The figure on p.363 has a box in the JavaScript column containing 
'string' and 'netscape.javascript.JSObject'.  This is an error since 
script code never has netscape.javascript.JSObject objects (this is a 
Java class, after all).  This Java class exists only in Java and is used 
to wrap JavaScript objects.  If such an instance is ever passed back to 
JavaScript, then it is unwrapped and the original JavaScript object is 
passed to JavaScript instead.

   (I suppose this has gone unnoticed since not too many people are 
implementing LiveConnect in their browsers -- I'm working on 
implementing it for OmniWeb 4.1 for Mac OS X -- 
http://www.omnigroup.com/)


[457] Date.setDay() Object is not mentioned or documented. All other 
Date.set*() objects are documented, but the Date.setDay() is not.


(465) second paragraph after Description:
The English expansion of UTC is (Coordinated Universal Time), not (Universal 
Coordinated Time). This bug may appear elsewhere in the book.


{512} the book mentions about returning false from an onSubmit to
stop a form submission.  Per the Microsoft Website:

"If the event handler is called by the onsubmit attribute of the form
object, the code must explicitly request the return value using the return
function..."

so instead of just calling

<form ... onSubmit="handler" ... >

you need to call

<form ... onSubmit="return(handler)" ... >

The URL for the above info is
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/dhtml/reference/events/onsubmit.asp?frame=true


{627} middle of page, second code example:
The code fragment:

	value = 1234;
	binary_value = n.toString(2);

should probably read:

	value = 1234;
	binary_value = value.toString(2);

or alternatively:

	n = 1234;
	binary_value = n.toString(2);

for it to make sense and match up with the previous code example.


{730} last paragraph:
IE 5.0 and Communicator 4.72 behave in the opposite manner. I don't have any 
older versions of the browsers. The frameset onunload handler is invoked 
before the frames' onunload handlers.

All Javascript documentation I can find describes this the same way you 
documented it.  Everyone agrees it should work that way, but it doesn't!