A common issue with Prototype is its inconsistent behavior across different web browsers.
Prototype customizes the prototypes of host objects like HTMLTableRowElement by adding its own functions, such as toggleClassName, directly to them for easier use. This may seem convenient, but it's not supported by ECMAScript or DOM standards. While this approach may work in Firefox due to their flexibility, it won't be compatible with all browsers, especially Internet Explorer.
To ensure functionality on other browsers, you need to manually instruct Prototype to extend (or 'augment') its methods to each object you want to manipulate:
Element.extend(this);
By doing this, you can safely use this.toggleClassName across different browsers. Once an element is augmented, it will retain those added methods even when accessed later. Additionally, accessing elements through Prototype methods like $('mytrid') will automatically augment them for you.
Although this may seem like a useful feature, it can lead to coding issues that only become apparent when used in browsers without support for prototype manipulation. This can cause debugging difficulties and potential errors, which is why some developers opt not to use Prototype.
Stay tuned for a discussion on Why I Do Not Use jQuery Either next week!