Errata

Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference

Errata for Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference

Submit your own errata for this product.

The errata list is a list of errors and their corrections that were found after the product was released. If the error was corrected in a later version or reprint the date of the correction will be displayed in the column titled "Date Corrected".

The following errata were submitted by our customers and approved as valid errors by the author or editor.

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

Version Location Description Submitted By Date submitted Date corrected
Printed
Page 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.



Anonymous   
Printed
Page xvi
changed 3 instances of "ora.com" to "oreilly.com" (2 email

addresses and a URL)

Anonymous    Sep 01, 1997
Printed
Page xiv-xv
This replaced the text from the header "Is HTML 3.2..." to the para.

just before the bulleted list:

HTML 4.0 Is Not the Definitive Standard!

Depending on our mood, when people ask us about the new HTML 4.0
"standard", we respond with a groan, a bemused smile, or uproarious
laughter. Folks, HTML 4.0 isn't a standard; it is where HTML 3.2 was
just before it became The Standard. Web foundations are not
shaking. In fact, the new language definition simply confirms what
most Web observers have known for some time now, that the commercial
browser manufacturers are the tail wagging the HTML standards dog.

Until about mid-1996, people actually were serious about HTML
standards. (Some of us still are.) Until then, standards guided the
development of new browsers. After release of HTML 2.0, however, the
elders of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) responsible for such
language-standards matters lost control. The abortive HTML+ standard
never got off the ground, and HTML 3.0 became so bogged down in debate
that the W3C simply shelved the entire draft standard.

What mired the development of new language standards was Netscape
Navigator. Most Web analysts agree that Netscape's quick success in
becoming the browser of choice for an overwhelming majority of users
can be attributed directly to the company's implementation of useful
and exciting additions to HTML. Today, all other browser
manufacturers, in particular the behemoth Microsoft Corp. who
appreciates the meaning of "de facto standard" better than anyone in
the business, have to implement Netscape's HTML extensions if they
expect to have any chance of competing in the Web browser
marketplace. By pushing the W3C to officially release HTML standards,
browser manufacturers gain legitimacy for their products without
having to acknowledge their competitors. Internet Explorer, for
instance, becomes "HTML 4.0-compliant," rather than submissively
"Netscape Navigator-compliant."

The scramble to gain the HTML standards edge will never abate. Like
the current standard, the HTML 4.0 draft is a stewpot of commercial
and academic interests, all bent on adding their distinctive flavoring
to the language. The paradox is that neither HTML 3.2, nor HTML 4.0,
is the definitive source for the language. There are many more
features of HTML in popular use than are included in either the
language standard or its drafted replacement.

This book, on the other hand, is the Definitive Guide to HTML. We give
details for all the elements of the HTML standard, plus the variety of
interesting and useful extensions to the language-some proposed
standards-that the popular browser manufacturers have chosen to
include in their products, such as:

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page Appendix C
Replaced entire table with online version of the table

at www.ora.com/info/html.

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 36
code line 6: removed the "I" after "CSS"

Anonymous    Sep 01, 1997
Printed
Page 51
IN PRINT: "In-Document Styles", line 5

"While placing a style definition in an element's tag flaunts the trend..."

NOW READS:
"While placing a style definition in an element's tag flouts the trend..."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 2004
Printed
Page 56
Common Subgroup Selectors, line 2

The "t" was missing from "isn't." This error HAS BEEN CORRECTED.

Anonymous    Mar 01, 2004
Printed
Page 63
third line of the code example near the bottom of page

p:first-line {font-style:small-caps}

NOW READS:
p:first-line {font-variant:small-caps}

Anonymous    Mar 01, 2004
Printed
Page 84
typo in Table 4-3. postRight should be posRight

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 85
getPropertyValue() requires background-color instead of backgroundColor.

This is stated in the reference section, but it should be mentioned here as well.

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 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.

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 90
first line

theObj = seekLayer(document.layers[i].document, name);

NOW READS:
theObj = seekLayer(doc.layers[i].document, name);

Anonymous    Mar 01, 2004
Printed
Page 133
Changed cross-reference to section 6.5 to 7.5.

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 165
last line: <muticol> should be <multicol>

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 166
3rd para.: "It is possible emulate" should be "It is possible to

emulate"

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 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".



Anonymous   
Printed
Page 176
example 6.2

body {font-family:Ariel,

NOW READS:
body {font-family:Arial,

Anonymous    Mar 01, 2004
Printed
Page 195
Table of HTML named colors

The color name "Silverd" NOW READS "Silver"

Anonymous    Mar 01, 2004
Printed
Page 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).

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 252

para. 1: Third sentence should read:

"Internet Explorer 4.0, introduced in the fall of 1997, implements
most of the W3C standard."

At the end of the fourth sentence, "1997" should be "spring of 1997".

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 252
para. 2: Second sentence: "partially supported" should be

"supported", "Explorer 3.0" should be "Explorer 4.0", and "the third
pre release of" should be deleted

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 254
in the code, line 6, the colon after "H1" should be deleted

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 258
last bullet item: last sentence should be deleted

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 262
para. 2 should be deleted

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 263
reprinted for pagebreak

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 268
entire second para. should be removed

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 270
Replace para beginning with "The relative and absolute..." with

"Incremental point sizes (+2pt, for example) are not currently handled
correctly by any browser."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 270
text after 1st code: In sentence beginning "As of this writing",

remove "and Internet Explorer 3", change "support" to "supports",
remove "." at the end and replace with "; Internet Explorer 4 supports
both values."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 270

last para. of section 9.3.3.4 should read:

"This property is not supported by Netscape; Internet Explorer 4
incorrectly implements *small-caps* as all upper case."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 271
Replace entire first para with

"Internet Explorer 4 and Netscape 4 support the *normal* and *bold*
values, with Internet Explorer 4 supporting the *lighter* and *bolder*
values as well. Both browsers support the numeric boldness values."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 271
Delete entire second para beginning with "Internet Explorer 3

does support..."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 272
Replace entire para beginning with "Internet Explorer 3 does not

support..." with "Netscape does not support this style property."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 273
para. 2: replace "Internet Explorer 3" with "Netscape".

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 274
para. 2: replace "Internet Explorer 3" with "Netscape".

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 275
para. 6: replace "Internet Explorer 3" with "Netscape".

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 276
Delete entire para beginning with "Internet Explorer 3 does

not..."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 277
para. 2: replace "Internet Explorer 3" with "For many background

effects, Netscape".

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 277
Last line on page, replace "not supported by any browser" with

"only supported by Internet Explorer 4".

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 278
Delete entire para beginning with "Internet Explorer 3 does

not..."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 279
Delete entire para beginning with "Internet Explorer 3 does

not..."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 279
para. 7: Replace "Internet Explorer supports only the

*underline* and *line-through* values" with "Internet Explorer 4 does
not support the *blink* value".

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 280
para. 5: Delete "This property is not supported by Internet

Explorer 3." Replace "While supported by" with "In".

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 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.

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 281
para. 3: Replace "This property is not supported by any browser"

with "Netscape 4 supports all but the *sub*, *super*, and *baseline*
values only when this property is applied to the *<img>* tag.
Internet Explorer 4 supports only *sub* and *super* when applied to
text elements."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 284
Delete entire para beginning with "Unfortunately, none of the

border..."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 285
At end of section 9.3.6.4, add a para: "Netscape supports this

property even when used alone; Internet Explorer 4 only honors this
property if borders are enabled through other border properties."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 286
At end of section 9.3.6.5, add a para: "Neither Internet

Explorer or Netscape support the *dashed* or *dotted* values."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 286
At end of section 9.3.6.6, add a para: "Both Netscape and

Internet Explorer support the *border* property, but only Internet
Explorer supports the individual side properties."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 287
Delete entire para beginning "The *clear* property currently is

not..."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 287
Replace para beginning "This property is not yet supported..."

with "This property is only supported by Internet Explorer for images.
Netscape honors it for textual elements as well."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 288
para. 6 replace "not yet" with "fully".

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 289
Remove entire para beginning "Internet Explorer 3 only

supports..."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 290
Delete entire first para

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 290
Delete entire para beginning "This property is not supported..."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 291
para. 6: Replace "not supported by any browser" with "only

supported by Internet Explorer 4."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 292
Delete entire para beginning "This property is not..."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 292
Delete entire para beginning "This property is not..."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 293
reprinted for pagebreak

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 294
Replace para beginning "Besides..." with "This property is fully

supported by Netscape 4; Internet Explorer 4 supports only the *none*
value."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 294
Replace para beginning "This property is not..." with "This

property is not supported by Internet Explorer; Netscape only supports
the *pre* and *normal* values."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 296
para. 3: In first sentence, replace "early 1997" with "late

1997". In last sentence, remove everything, including the parenthetic
"see 13.4", after "in their most recent versions."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 296
para. 4: First sentence, replace "So, currently" with

"Currently." At end of para, remove sentence "Netscape promises
complete support...to keep pace with Netscape." In last sentence,
replace "first half of 1997" with "last half of 1997" and replace "end
of the year" with "end of 1998".

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 297
reprinted for pagebreak

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 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

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 306
made second para. bulleted

Anonymous    Sep 01, 1997
Printed
Page 337
In the example, about halfway down,

"makeword(query_string, '&'.;"

should be

"makeword(query_string, '&');"

Similarly, four lines later,

"makeword(entries[num_entries].val, '='.;"

should be

"makeword(entries[num_entries].val, '=');"

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 339
In the example, about halfway down,

"fmakeword(stdin, '&'. &cl);"

should be

"fmakeword(stdin, '&', &cl);"

Four lines later,

"makeword(entries[num_entries].val, '='.;"

should be

"makeword(entries[num_entries].val, '=');"

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 347
para. 2: Replace second sentence, beginning with "The default

behavior..." with "The default behavior, represented by the value
*all*, is to draw borders around all cells." Replace last sentence
beginning with "Using *rows* or *cols*..." with "Using *rows* or
*cols* places borders only between every row or column, respectively,
while using *none* removes borders from every cell in the table."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 347
Remove footnote at bottom of the page.

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 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.

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 389
in the "_parent" entry, changed "Figure 12-6" to "Figure 12-8"

Anonymous    Sep 01, 1997
Printed
Page 402
2nd script tag example

The second script tag example includes the attribute:
scr="scripts/myscript.js"

The attribute name HAS BEEN CHANGED to src, not scr.

Anonymous    Mar 01, 2004
Printed
Page 405
"also lets your label the" should read "also lets you label the"

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 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.

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 470

paragraph 2, line 6 reads:

... Text references to Netscape 6 automatically impy...
Change "impy" to "imply".

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 472

paragraph 2, line 6 reads:

... The letters a
Change "a" to "A"

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 477
next-to-last entry: "PFor" should be "For"

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 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.

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 511
line 2 on page: changed "rectangle" to "rect"

Anonymous    Sep 01, 1997
Printed
Page 511
The "Small a, acute accent" Symbol has the wrong accent. The

accent should rise right, not left.

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 533
In the "About the authors", replace the sentence in Chuck

Musciano's section beginning "Most recently, he has taken..." with
"Most recently, he has taken the position of Chief Information Officer
with the American Kennel Club in Raleigh, North Carolina."

Anonymous    Mar 01, 1998
Printed
Page 584
2nd Para

The last sentence that says:
"But this is not the system clipboard (for security reasons)."
This sentence should be deleted.

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 619
doesn't discuss the links[] object listed in the table on p.609.

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 818
Top paragraph, object section

The last sentence of the first paragraph on the page NOW READS:

The object property wrapper tells the JavaScript interpreter to access the
property of the
external object loaded into the element, and not the property of the HTML
element itself.

Anonymous    Mar 01, 2004
Printed
Page 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).

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 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.

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 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.

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 1065
NN Supported Types

In the heading for the display section in the css portion, it stated that
display is
compatible with NN4.

The compatibility rating for the 'display' property (bottom of page 1064)
NOW READS:

NN 6 IE 4 CSS 1

Anonymous    Mar 01, 2004
Printed
Page 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.

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 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.

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 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)"

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 1132
splice can delete 0 elements, not just 1 or more

The phrase should read "zero or more".

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 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 -).

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 1167
random(); In the formula -

Math.floor(Math.random() * n)

NOW READS:
Math.floor(Math.random() * (n+1))

Anonymous    Mar 01, 2004
Printed
Page 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.

Anonymous   
Printed
Page 1198
3rd paragraph

While explaining the increment operator ++ with two short scripting
examples, the
second one contained a slight mistake:

var a, b;
a = 5;
b = a--;

NOW READS:
var a, b;
a = 5;
b = a++;

Anonymous    Mar 01, 2004