innerHTML vs value for TEXTAREA element

[dr.bob]

Hi

i just discovered (in gecko-based browsers) that if i dynamically
create a TEXTAREA and assign a string to its innerHTML, all works
fine (my string is displayed inside the TEXTAREA once it's
attached to some suitable place in the DOM tree); BUT if i
grab an existing TEXTAREA t and replace t.innerHTML, nothing
changes until i do the same replacement on t.value. is that a
bug, or that's the way it's supposed to be?

/dr.bob

 

[Michael Winter]

i just discovered (in gecko-based browsers) that if i dynamically
create a TEXTAREA and assign a string to its innerHTML

You should really stop right there. TEXTAREA elements can only contain
text and the expected way of accessing or modifying that data is via the
value property.

The fact that it implements the innerHTML property at all is
conceptually odd, and probably best forgotten.

An explanation for the behaviour you're seeing? I can't give you one,
but it seems reasonable to assume a relationship to the above.

[snip]

Mike