Unobtrusive Javascript Obfuscates Event Handling

Question

You know what I liked best about obtrusive javascript? You always knew what it was going to do when you triggered an event.

Answer 1

Calling it "kool-aid" seems unfair. DOM Level 2 events solve specific problems with inline event handling, like the conflicts that always result. I don't look back to writing code to use window.onload that has to check whether someone else has assigned it before, and sometimes having it overriden by accident or out of sloppiness. It also ensures a better separation of the structure (HTML) and behaviour (JS) layers. All in all, it's a good thing.

Regarding debugging, I don't think there's any way to solve the event handlers being anonymous functions, other than nagging the authors to use named functions where possible. If you can, tell them that it produces more meaningful call stacks and makes the code more maintainable.