Comments on: Using setTimeout to Solve DOMContentLoaded?

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:22:33 +0000

Good suggestion from Peter tbh.
|
function try_again(){
if(document.body){go();}
else{setTimeout(try_again, 1000);}
}
|
Though instead of 1 second, I’d set the timeout on 0.
All browsers have a minimum setTimout timer, which lies between 20ms (fastest afaik) and 75ms (slowest), which should provide nearly the same error margin as other domready methods crossbrowser, though other methods will probably be more accurate for specific browsers.

By: Mikael Bergkvist

Mikael Bergkvist — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:15:48 +0000

What about

function try_again(){
if(document.body){go();}
else{setTimeout(try_again, 1000);}
}

By: PeterMichaux

PeterMichaux — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 06:15:04 +0000

Using the bottom script is too late. If an HTML page stalls half way through the load then it part of it is visible but the elements are not enlivened with the unobtrusive event handlers.

http://peter.michaux.ca/article/3752

By: Steve Roussey

Steve Roussey — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:35:02 +0000

@benyc : that is the way you often do it in real life. However, people that create JS libraries have a self imposed limit that all you have to do is include the single tag, which is easier for adoption of the library.

By: benyc

benyc — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:45:07 +0000

What ever happened to just putting a script tag at the bottom of your page and firing your own custom event. I can’t think of an easier more widely supported method.

By: bollywood

bollywood — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:58:00 +0000

Man, jQuery is doing the same.

// Remove event listener to avoid memory leak
if ( jQuery.browser.mozilla || jQuery.browser.opera )
document.removeEventListener( “DOMContentLoaded”, jQuery.ready, false );

// Remove script element used by IE hack
if( !window.frames.length ) // don’t remove if frames are present (#1187)
jQuery(window).load(function(){ jQuery(”#__ie_init”).remove(); });

By: remy

remy — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:22:36 +0000

I just posted this comment on snook.ca (but it’s still waiting moderation). There’s another problem with using setTimeout – it will fire early if you have slow external scripts on your page.

I’ve put together a simple test that loads an external script which sleeps for a few seconds before responding. The result, in IE7 + Safari is the setTimeout fires before the DOM is actually ready.

http://remysharp.com/demo/onload.php

So I think if you are going to consider using setTimeout as your DOM ready function, you need to be very sure of the make up of your page, i.e. gzip & no external scripts. This sounds fine for smaller projects, but doesn’t work so well for companies relying on ads served through JavaScript for some revenue.