Is There A Central Repository of Javascript Information?

Question

For example, if you want information of PHP functions, you can go to http://www.php.net/ . If you want information of Perl functions you can to to http://www.cpan.org/ and/or use perldoc. If you want information on Java you can go to http://java.sun.com and/or use javadoc. However, if you want information on Javascript methods/functions and their attributes, return values, etc. where do you go? The reason I ask is I was playing with the "focus()" method and wondering if it could be passed any values or if it returned anything when called. I have done a cursory Google search but haven't found much. Does such a beast exist or am I out of luck?

Answer 1

There is no real one-stop shop, because there are various implementations of ECMAScript specific to the various browsers.

Important resources:

• MSDN section on JScript (IE implementation) and the IE implementation of the DOM (Thanks @David)
• Mozilla Developer Center: JavaScript (Firefox implementation)
• The w3C DOM Specification

• W3Schools has half-decent cross-browser reference material, cheers for reminding me @Dalin. In my experience, their stuff is okay and reliable for the basics (@bobince disagrees, though, and points out security holes in their examples. So be careful.) on complex reference questions, they often fail to properly point out cross browser issues, and you end up looking on MDC and MSDN to find deeper information. Still, worth noting and a useful source.

• ECMAScript itself - this is the basic language "behind" JavaScript without the browser-specific parts like the Document Object Model that make it a "real world language". Cheers for the link @Bobince.

See also this question on reference sites and materials.