mivox - 1:15 am on Feb 27, 2001 (gmt 0)

Hrm... after doing a bit of research, it seems that DHTML isn't anything specific in and of itself. It simply refers to using javascript to change or set style properties for elements in a page.

The proprietary problem comes in because the Document Object Models (DOMs) used by various browsers are different. Netscape 4.x uses document.layers (and some other NS only stuff), IE uses document.all (and some other IE only stuff), and NS6 supposedly uses the W3C's "standard" DOM.

So if Opera were to fully support javascript, the W3C DOM, and interaction between the two, it would support "standard compliant" DHTML. Unfortunately, writing standard compliant DHTML seems to be a bit more complex than making sure browser detection works properly...

Besides, javascript was introduced with NN 3... so it started out as "proprietary" too. ;)

[edited by mivox, to include useful information]