Where is "official", not Microsoft, spec for javascrpt, etc.?

[Howard Kaikow]

I know where to find the spec for ECMAScript and the Document Object Model,
but where do I find the spec for, e.g.?

alert
location.href

 

[Jim Ley]

I know where to find the spec for ECMAScript and the Document Object Model,
but where do I find the spec for, e.g.?

alert
location.href

There isn't one...

Jim.

 

[Jim Ley]

Probably you don't need them.

Those two were Netscape inventions, and IE made the sensible choice of
following them.

The Window object model has never been standardised (the concept of a
window not actually existing in Document Object Models) The SVG WG
recognised that standardisation was useful, and have controversially
started down the route of doing so (the existence of a UA where the
global object wasn't called window probably convinced them of the
need!)

The WHAT-WG (if they're still alive posting seems to have ceased) are
also working on standardising this.

Both efforts at standardisation though are purely ratifying the
existing de-facto standards (which are tough of course - what do you
do when there's minor differences in the implementations?)

And this MS JScript is not JavaScript at all.

Hmm, that's misleading.

So you have two choices - loose 90% of users or follow M$ ((

No, not at all, you certainly can't ignore JScript, but you can easily
author script that works fine in lots of browsers without any special
work.

Jim.

 

[RobG]

Probably you don't need them.
Probably you want your script to run in IE. Because it's at least 90% of market
((
And this MS JScript is not JavaScript at all.
So you have two choices - loose 90% of users or follow M$ ((

Rubbish!! You can write platform independent code that
runs in the majority of browsers quite easily. Microsoft
did zero to help create the web, though their support for
standards has, to some extent, helped it to grow. I can
see no benefit in writing IE specific code simply to
because MS has a large chunk of the browser market.

Rob.

 

[Stewart Gordon]

Rubbish!! You can write platform independent code that
runs in the majority of browsers quite easily. Microsoft
did zero to help create the web, though their support for
standards has, to some extent, helped it to grow. I can
see no benefit in writing IE specific code simply to
because MS has a large chunk of the browser market.

Moreover, if you're writing pages that require a dialect of ECMAScript
to be enabled in order to function, then you already have a problem,
before you get to browser-specific issues.

The only possible exception is if the automated process is the whole
purpose of the page/site (e.g. a JavaScript games site), rather than
simply being used for a site's UI.

Stewart.