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I agree, except with the “simply” part. This is not simple at all, unless you also demand that every property can only ever be a string. Otherwise, you need to

I agree, except with the “simply” part. This is not simple at all, unless you also demand that every property can only ever be a string. Otherwise, you need to think of conversions (eg from and to numbers), and what about properties that can be set to objects? Or properies that don’t correspond to attributes at all? I agree that any sort of convention/rule here that’d be 100% fixed would’ve been better, but it wouldn’t be simple.

londons_explore 3y ago
think the other way round... allow DOM attribute values to be of any javascript type... Sure, they maybe can't be serialized, but that isn't an issue.
- strix_varius 3y ago
  That doesn't make any sense. DOM attributes are serialized as a fundamental part of their expression.
  - layer8 3y ago
    So is JavaScript. Granted, it would be more straightforward if it were a Lisp.
- afavour 3y ago
  In what way is that not an issue? What happens when you use .outerHTML to get a string representation of the element? Not to mention that, unavoidably, the entire page HTML arrives to the browser as a string.
  - londons_explore 3y ago
    Same is true of real javascript objects vs JSON. For example, you can't put Date() in JSON. Nor objects with a prototype.
    - afavour 3y ago
      Right… and that’s an issue people have to work around every day. Non string values in HTML world similarly be an issue everyone would have to work around.
    - no_wizard 3y ago
      I do want to point out for those who don't know, on objects with a prototype (such as a class) you can control how JSON.stringify works by adding a special method `toJSON`[0] which will control how that object is serialized. [0]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON/stringify#:~:text=If%20the%20value%20has%20a%20toJSON()%20method%2C%20it%27s%20responsible%20to%20define%20what%20data%20will%20be%20serialized https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...

londons_explore 3y ago

think the other way round... allow DOM attribute values to be of any javascript type... Sure, they maybe can't be serialized, but that isn't an issue.

strix_varius 3y ago
That doesn't make any sense. DOM attributes are serialized as a fundamental part of their expression.
- layer8 3y ago
  So is JavaScript. Granted, it would be more straightforward if it were a Lisp.
afavour 3y ago
In what way is that not an issue? What happens when you use .outerHTML to get a string representation of the element? Not to mention that, unavoidably, the entire page HTML arrives to the browser as a string.
- londons_explore 3y ago
  Same is true of real javascript objects vs JSON. For example, you can't put Date() in JSON. Nor objects with a prototype.
  - afavour 3y ago
    Right… and that’s an issue people have to work around every day. Non string values in HTML world similarly be an issue everyone would have to work around.
  - no_wizard 3y ago
    I do want to point out for those who don't know, on objects with a prototype (such as a class) you can control how JSON.stringify works by adding a special method `toJSON`[0] which will control how that object is serialized. [0]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON/stringify#:~:text=If%20the%20value%20has%20a%20toJSON()%20method%2C%20it%27s%20responsible%20to%20define%20what%20data%20will%20be%20serialized https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...