Errata

Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference

Errata for Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference

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Color Key: Serious technical mistake Minor technical mistake Language or formatting error Typo Question Note Update

Version Location Description Submitted by Date submitted
Printed Page 42
First paragraph, second-to-last-sentence.

The offending sentence effectively says, "...the purpose of tagging ...[is]: assigning context within a document." The usage here of the word "context" is incorrect. Context has to do with the semantic effects of the greater meaning within which a word, phrase or idea exists. It has nothing to do with formatting or design rendering.

The www.dictionary.reference.com definition of context is, "the parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage, usually influencing its meaning or effect". Note that the definition refers to "parts of a written or spoken statement" and not to their relative placement or typestyles upon a display screen or printed page. Further, the etymology of the word shows that it bears on the semantic relationships between the parts of a statement. The fact that html tags "surround" a text element does not mean that they have any influence on the meaning of the text.

The correct word would probably be "structure", which refers to design and rendering rather than meaning: "...the purpose of tagging ...[is]: assigning structure within a document."

This is supported by the compatibly edited restatement of the concluding sentence of the paragraph: "The precise appearance of data within that [structure] belongs to the style sheet.

The fact that the section is about styles is the final confirmation: style has everything to do with presentation and virtually nothing to do with meaning.

So we have presentation, which includes design, structure and decoration, and content, which conveys meaning.

I believe that this is an important error because this type of reinterpretation of common words is very confusing to those of us who use the real-world tool known as a dictionary to define them; a refence book should clarify, not obfuscate.

Anonymous  Jan 18, 2010 
Printed Page 46
2nd paragraph

missing right parenthesis in "(see the border, margin, and padding style attributes
in Chapter 11"

Anonymous   
Printed Page 72
2nd paragraph

Paranthetic phrase "(even it is..." should be "(even if it is..."

Anonymous   
Printed Page 92-93
last function on 92, first function on 93

getObjectWidth and getObjectHeight refer to elem.clip. The variable elem is set by
getRawObject, so it is not a style. Only styles contain the clip property.

Anonymous   
Printed Page 111
at the bottom of the page there is a reference to Example 5-1,

global flags. The global flag script is in Example 4-1.

Anonymous   
Printed Page 389
<option> label attribute definition

There appears to be some misunderstanding of this attribute.

"The label attribute is included in HTML 4.0 in anticipation of possible hierarchical
select lists. The label is intended to be a shorter alternate entry for an option
element when it is rendered heirarchically."

should be replaced by something like:

"The label attribute [of <option> elements] is used to override the contents of the
tag, to eliminate the redundancy required for backwards-compatibility when using
heirarchical <optgroup> select lists."

The next sentence: "It [the label attribute] overrides the normal text associated
with the option element." is correct, which is puzzling, since it conflicts with the
previous language ("alternate") and the entire next sentence: "Note that IE 5/Mac
incorrectly displays the label attribute value in lieu of the element's text.", which
is untrue (IE 5/Mac is the only completely compliant implementation of <optgroup>).

The last sentence is true, but could be altered to highlight the behavior as
noncompliant (as with the incorrect IE 5/Mac sentence):

"Version 6 browsers provide no practical functionality for this attribute."

could be changed to something like:

"Note that most browsers (with the exception of IE 5+/Mac) incorrectly ignore the
label attribute."

Finally, an (old) example would be useful to illustrate:

<select name=browser>
<optgroup label="Netscape Navigator">
<option label="4.x or higher">
Netscape Navigator 4.x or higher
</option>
<option label="3.x">Netscape Navigator 3.x</option>
<option label="2.x">Netscape Navigator 2.x</option>
<option label="1.x">Netscape Navigator 1.x</option>
</optgroup>
<optgroup label="Microsoft Internet Explorer">
<option label="4.x or higher">
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x or higher
</option>
<option label="3.x">Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x</option>
<option label="2.x">Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.x</option>
<option label="1.x">Microsoft Internet Explorer 1.x</option>
</optgroup>
<optgroup label="Opera">
<option label="3.x or higher">Opera 3.x or higher</option>
<option label="2.x">Opera 2.x</option>
</optgroup>
<option>other</option>
</select>

In an optgroup-compliant browser, this list would be rendered with the labels:

Netscape Navigator
4.x or higher
3.x
2.x
1.x
Microsoft Internet Explorer
4.x or higher
3.x
2.x
1.x
Opera
3.x or higher
2.x
other

In older browsers, the list would be rendered with the option text:

Netscape Navigator 4.x or higher
Netscape Navigator 3.x
Netscape Navigator 2.x
Netscape Navigator 1.x
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x or higher
Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x
Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.x
Microsoft Internet Explorer 1.x
Opera 3.x or higher
Opera 2.x
other

Sadly, due to the current partial implementations that ignore the option labels, this
elegant backwards-compatible solution will instead be rendered as the much more
verbose:

Netscape Navigator
Netscape Navigator 4.x or higher
Netscape Navigator 3.x
Netscape Navigator 2.x
Netscape Navigator 1.x
Microsoft Internet Explorer
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x or higher
Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x
Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.x
Microsoft Internet Explorer 1.x
Opera
Opera 3.x or higher
Opera 2.x
other

which basically destroys the purpose of the optgroup heirarchy.
(As does, IMHO, the currently common single-dimensional rendering, since it offers
only visual partitioning, and no navigational partitioning to break up long lists.)
It is also worth pointing out that the iCab browser builds this mistake to an even
more disappointing level, by displaying *both* the option text *and* the option
label.

Anonymous   
Printed Page 528
1st section, 2nd line

First let me say this is the book I have been waiting for for years!
It's rapidly becoming my Bible in my work. I'm very happy with it!

A small addition:

The book says that the setAttribute() method in IE4 through 5.5 uses propertynames
instead of attributenames. I experienced that the same behaviour holds for IE6.0 for
PC.

Anonymous   
Printed Page 605
first paragraph of div section

The claim is made that the client and scroll properties are active in IE for the
Macintosh.

To the best of my knowledge (after trying countless different pages), the scroll
properties (specifically scrollLeft and scrollTop) on IE for Mac 5.x do not correlate
to what's actually shown on the screen at all.

Anonymous   
Printed Page 1035
specifications for onscroll

onscroll works in Netscape 7 and Mozilla 0.9.6+

Anonymous   
Printed Page 1063
pointer

The entry for cursors states that pointer is available as of IE 4 for windows. In
fact it was introduced in IE6 and throws an exception if set through JavaScript in
previous versions.

Anonymous   
Printed Page 1264

(1264) for onresize: 'body' should also possibly be included in the objects list

Anonymous