Re: Distinguishing objects and arrays?

On Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 2:57 PM, Anne van Kesteren <annevk@opera.com> wrote:

> For the DOM we have this idea of having a method that can conveniently
> create an element, set its attributes, event handlers, and child nodes.
> However, to keep the method convenient some of those need to become optional
> and therefore it requires some kind of overloading, which is where things
> become problematic.
>
> Maybe there is a better design, but so far we have something like this:
>
> create(name)
> create(name, attributes)
> create(name, children)
> create(name, attributes, children)
> create(name, attributes, eventhandlers, children)
>
> name is a string.
>
> attributes is an object.
>
> eventhandlers is an object.
>
> children is either a Node or string, or an array of Nodes and strings.
>
> Examples:
>
> create('h1', 'Welcome!')
> create('button', {name: 'command', value: 'search'}, {onclick: teehee},
> 'Search')
> create('p', {title: 'hi'}, [node, node2])
>
> The problem is however that arrays and objects are not really
> distinguishable unless you do "evil things".
>
> Anyone with ideas?
>

Array.isArray <http://es5.github.com/#x15.4.3.2> is not evil.

If for some reason that is unsuitable, there are some ideas at <
http://wiki.ecmascript.org/doku.php?id=conventions:isarraylike>. Though like
I say at the note at the top, I no longer believe it is practical to attempt
to standardize an isArrayLine based on current practice.



>
>
> --
> Anne van Kesteren
> http://annevankesteren.nl/
>
>


-- 
    Cheers,
    --MarkM