The Scripting draft
serves much the same purpose as the style draft - it describes how all the
new client-side scripting languages should interact with HTML, yet it
doesn't describe the languages themselves. Again, the emphasis is on
building an open framework that developers can use to plug in whichever
sort of scripting architecture suits them and their user base.
This draft begins to cover the same ground as the others. It attempts to
document current practice in shipping browsers: Both Netscape's JavaScript and
Microsoft's VisualBasic Script are represented as methods that people use
today to distribute interactive elements on their pages. The draft also details
the current interface to HTML: embedding the <script> tag in the
same ways <style> works. You can link to an external script, embed one in
the head of your document, or pepper the code throughout your pages. The
draft goes on to document how the TYPE, LANGUAGE, and
SRC attributes should be used, and then discusses the implications of
"self-modifying documents" - pages that can change their content when loaded.
This draft, however, goes further than its style counterpart. The scripting spec
starts to look at a group of "intrinsic events" (bits of code that
trigger scripts to run) that every browser should share. You're probably
familiar with events like onLoad and onClick, but the list goes
on to include interesting things like onFocus and onChange,
which can be applied to form elements and more.
Again, this is merely a draft - a place to start discussion about the
future of HTML. Read it carefully, understand the implications, and be sure
to complain loudly if something looks weird or incomplete. Now is the time.
next page»
