Beginner onmouse java question with code

[robbie71321]

 

Point your mouse here!

[LSW]

Just a technicality, but it can cause confusion.

 

This is JavaScript (JS) - it is a scripting language from Netscape.

 

Java is a Programming language from Sun Microsystems.

 

They are two different critters.

[lwsimon]

document.write() is deprecated and is poor form. It works by immediately inserting text into the document while it is still being rendered by the browser - in this case, you're calling it after the document is loaded, so it ha nowhere to write to.

 

Try this:

 

function mouseOver()
{
alert("hello!!");
}
function mouseOut()
{
alert("goodbye!!!");
}

 

That should give you a popup when you go in and out of the area.

[robbie71321]

thanks Iwsimon, you clarified to me that I had the right idea but the "wrong" code .

I thought I had left out a ";" or something else ... more learning to do

Would this problem have showed up if I used a debugger ?

Thanks again

[lwsimon]

What browser are you using to test in? If you're using IE, I would strongly suggest that you download Firefox, and use Firebug for Javascript debugging. Its error messages are much, much better than IE's.

 

This would not have shown up though. A debugger can only tell you when you've made a syntax error. This is a logic error - you're writing to a document that is already rendered.

 

Do you have past experience programming? If not, I would actually suggest learning PHP before learning Javascript. PHP is more "traditional" and has better documentation. A lot of people, including people who write tutorials, write very poor javascript.