78798 - window.status requires return false when combined with addEventListener

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Core :: DOM: Events, defect)

Description

[Dylan Schiemann]

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:0.8.1+)
Gecko/20010501
BuildID:    2001050104

To replace the status message using window.status, normally a return true value
is required in the event handler.  However, when the event handler is added
using addEventListener, return false is required.  This is inconsistent, and may
be a bug, unless there is a reason that addEventListener should return false in
this case.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Run attached testcase.
2. mouseover the links
3. the status message changes for 1 and 3, but not 2.  It should, if I am
correct, change for 1 and 2 but not 3.

Actual Results:  status message changes with addEventListener only with return false

Expected Results:  status message changes with addEventListener only with return
true

Comment 1

[Dylan Schiemann]

Attachment: testcase

Comment 2

[joki (gone)]

I'm marking this future as low priority for two reasons.

One, the fact that to block default browser action you return true for the 
mouseover event and false for almost every other event has always been annoying, 
though we support it out of necessity.  I wouldn't mind seeing it goes away but 
for 4.x pages this does work correctly in 6.x

Two, anyone using AddEventListener isn't a 4.x page and is using the new DOM 
standard and should be using PreventDefault(), not return true/false, to achieve 
the prevention of the browser action.

Comment 3

[Dylan Schiemann]

Agreed on both points.  Thanks for the clarification.

Comment 4

[Vladimir Ermakov]

From the coments I dont think this should be fixed at all. It makes much more
sence to return false to block the default action, since thats how it works for
any other events. The only reason onmouseover needs to return true is for
backwards compatibility. Reopen if you disagree.