HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 13. Dynamic Documents
The standard HTML/XHTML document model is static. Once displayed
on the browser, a document does not change until the user initiates
some activity, such as selecting a hyperlink. The Netscape developers
found that limitation unacceptable and built some special features into
their browser that let you change HTML document content dynamically.
In fact, they provide two different mechanisms for dynamic documents,
which we describe in detail in this chapter. Internet Explorer supports
some of these mechanisms, which we'll discuss as well.
We should mention that many of the features of dynamic documents
have been displaced by plug-in browser accessories and, in particular,
applets, as well as the new Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax)
technologies. Nonetheless, Netscape and Internet Explorer continue to
support dynamic documents, and we believe the technology has virtues
you should be aware of, if not take advantage of, in your HTML docu-
ments. [
Applets and Objects, 12.1
]
