class Event
Description
The namespace for Prototype's event system.
Events: a fine mess
Event management is one of the really sore spots of cross-browser scripting.
True, the prevalent issue is: everybody does it the W3C way, and MSIE
does it another way altogether. But there are quite a few subtler,
sneakier issues here and there waiting to bite your ankle — such as the
keypress
/keydown
issue with KHTML-based browsers (Konqueror and
Safari). Also, MSIE has a tendency to leak memory when it comes to
discarding event handlers.
Prototype to the rescue
Of course, Prototype smooths it over so well you'll forget these
troubles even exist. Enter the Event
namespace. It is replete with
methods that help to normalize the information reported by events across
browsers.
Event
also provides a standardized list of key codes you can use with
keyboard-related events.
The functions you're most likely to use a lot are Event.observe
,
Event.element
and Event.stop
. If your web app uses custom events,
you'll also get a lot of mileage out of Event.fire
.