Greg, For what it's worth, I had very similar feelings when I ran into a very similar problem. (I was trying to get consistent behavior when pressing enter or tab. Tab is a tricky one because different browsers do different things with different events to handle element focus. Hint: in Safari, you may have to call event.preventDefault() in order to prevent focus shifting to funny places, though that might depend on whether or not you're also trying to manage focus).
To make a long story short, this is a very problematic area when it comes to cross-browser compatibility. If you're survived it (despite frustrations), you're in pretty good shape. This is probably one of the worst corners you'll find in GWT because it actually affects functionality. There are still issues with things rendering differently, but at least those are only visual. There's not much you can do about that other than to learn how to deal with some and avoid the others. There are some areas where GWT does hide some of the complexity (element visibility, for example), but GWT is more about leveling the behavior of JavaScript than the DOM. -Brian On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 3:05 PM, David Chandler <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi Greg, > > Prior to joining Google, I thought (and still do think) that the GWT > developer guides are actually pretty rich for an open source project and > many of the Javadocs, too. Of course, there are always holes and we welcome > constructive feedback through the issue tracker. > > GWT is open source, so I hope you will contribute Javadocs as you find > things that can be improved. > > /dmc > > > On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 2:50 PM, Greg Dougherty <[email protected] > > wrote: > >> Jeff, >> >> Thank you. That' lets me know which one I want to use. >> >> If I knew JavaScript and DOM, or, for that matter, even WANTED to know >> JavaScript and DOM, I wouldn't be using GWT, I'd be writing the >> JavaScript myself. No? >> >> The whole point of using something like GWT is that it lets a Java >> programmer write a web app w/o having to learn all the crap that >> normal web app writers have to wade through. That's certainly why I >> spent the time and effort to learn GWT. For that matter, I presume >> that the people writing things like the KeyPressEventHandler DO know >> JavaScript and DOM. So, really, how hard is it for them to put that >> knowledge into the documentation? Isn't that what the documentation >> is THERE for? >> >> I write a JavaDoc header for every routine I write. And the point of >> that header is to explain why it is that someone would be calling that >> routine, and what they'll get by calling it. To my mind that's the >> MINIMUM that should be in any JavaDoc, and if you're not going to >> cover that, you should stop wasting time and just not write anything. >> Do you disagree? >> >> What % of the GWT JavaDoc actually answer those questions? 1%? 10%? >> >> Greg >> >> On Dec 3, 1:09 pm, Jeff Schwartz <[email protected]> wrote: >> > KeyPress - triggered when the user presses a key and releases it (key >> down >> > and then key up) >> > KeyDown - triggered when the user presses the key (key down) >> > >> > Perhaps the documentation assumes some prior knowledge of javascript and >> dom >> > events and though GWT tries to shield the developer from much of it it >> > cannot do so 100%. >> > >> > Jeff >> > >> > On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 1:47 PM, Greg Dougherty >> > <[email protected]>wrote: >> > >> > >> > >> > > This is my first entry in what will be a continuing series of pointing >> > > out GWT JavaDocs achieving Microsoftian levels of "saying everything >> > > while explaining nothing." Why? Because if you're going to actually >> > > write documentation, it shouldn't be totally worthless. >> > >> > > KeyPressHandler: Handler interface for KeyPressEvent events >> > > KeyDownHandler: Handler interface for KeyDownEvent events >> > >> > > KeyPressEvent : Represents a native key press event >> > > KeyDownEvent: Represents a native key down event >> > >> > > Does anyone believe this "documentation" provides anything of value? >> > > I sure don't. What I want to know is what is teh difference between >> > > these two things? What, EXACTLY, is a KeyDownEvent? How does it >> > > differ from KeyPressEvent ? When would I use one, when would I use >> > > the other? Which one should I use if I want to fire off a command >> > > when the user hits Enter or Return? >> > >> > > The first place most people are going to look to answer these >> > > questions is the JavaDoc. If you're programming in Eclipse (and, if >> > > you're not, you're wasting a lot of time and killing your >> > > productivity), you get the JavaDoc whenever you hover over one of >> > > these objects, which means that the fist place to put anything and >> > > everything the user needs to know is there (you want to put it other >> > > places, too? Great. Disk space is cheap. Programmer time is not). >> > >> > > So, what IS the difference between the two? Anyone know? Because >> > > while I could make a guess, I'm not paid to guess, I'm paid to know. >> > > (And yes, I'd be quite happy to pay ~$50 to get JavaDoc for GWT that >> > > were something more than the pointless repeating of what's already >> > > there. Anyone selling something like that for GWT 2.1?) >> > >> > > -- >> > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups >> > > "Google Web Toolkit" group. >> > > To post to this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> > > [email protected]<google-web-toolkit%[email protected]> >> <google-web-toolkit%[email protected]<google-web-toolkit%[email protected]> >> > >> > > . >> > > For more options, visit this group at >> > >http://groups.google.com/group/google-web-toolkit?hl=en. >> > >> > -- >> > *Jeff Schwartz* >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Google Web Toolkit" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]<google-web-toolkit%[email protected]> >> . >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/google-web-toolkit?hl=en. >> >> > > > -- > David Chandler > Developer Programs Engineer, Google Web Toolkit > http://googlewebtoolkit.blogspot.com/ > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Google Web Toolkit" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<google-web-toolkit%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/google-web-toolkit?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Web Toolkit" group. 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