Web applications have come a long way since the release of Netscape Navigator 2.0, the first web browser to have a scripting language embedded in it. That language, JavaScript, allowed developers for the first time to manipulate their web pages directly in the user’s browser. From those humble beginnings arose the Document Object Model, a full-fledged specification of standard methods and properties for working with HTML and XML data.
Every day, XML and HTML are becoming more and more prevalent in an everwidening variety of applications. Developers who want to quickly create applications that leverage these technologies can use the Document Object Model to save themselves a lot of time and trouble associated with learning one vendor’s proprietary interfaces for working with these kinds of structured documents.
