Re: currentTarget / observer

On 1/7/11 7:44 AM, Gerd Wagner wrote:
>>> What about replacing the misnomer "currentTarget" by "observer" in the
>>> Event interface?
>>
>> We cannot break compatibility.
>
> I understand this requirement, but does it imply that we have to live
> with bad choices made in the past (going on to create misunderstanding
> costs) forever?

More or less, yes.

> One possible approach would be introducing "observer" and declaring
> "currentTarget" as deprecated.

How does that help?  UAs will have to implement currentTarget forever, 
right?  What incentive will web pages have to use the thing that breaks 
in some UAs as opposed to just continuing to use currentTarget?  What 
incentive will UAs have to implement the new thing?

(As a side note, "observer" is even more opaque than "currentTarget" to 
me, since there is no mention of an "observer" anywhere in the DOM event 
model, but I'm presuming we could in fact find a better name, for 
purposes of this discussion and to avoid bikeshedding about the name.)

-Boris

Received on Friday, 7 January 2011 16:23:09 UTC