Why are function declarations handled differently in different browsers?

Question

Although I couldn\'t find a reference to this easily in google, I\'m familiar with the fact that, in javascript, global function declarations get interpreted before any code

Answer 1

The ECMA standard for this behavior is to throw a SyntaxError when parsing the script. Unfortunately doing that is not compatible with the web as Raynos says.

See Which JS function-declaration syntax is correct according to the standard? for some extended discussion on the issue.