On 13/05/06, Anne van Kesteren <ann...@opera.com> wrote:

Not quite. NodeList are, in some ways, array-like. But StaticNodeList is more array-like, for several reasons:

- First of all, I think StaticNodeList would be implemented as an actual list or hash table, not as filters used on the live node tree. This specifically because it's not supposed to be affected by changes in the node tree. This means they are considerably different under the hood.

- Second, manipulating the DOM using elements gotten from looping through a NodeList will have effects on that NodeList during the loop. Removals, reparentings, insertions etc, may affect the NodeList. StaticNodeList will not be affected by changes to the DOM. This means the different mapping functions may have very bizzarre side effects on NodeLists that they would not have on StaticNodeLists.

- Third, NodeLists being live means you cannot manually manipulate them. StaticNodeLists don't have this problem. Since they are not live, manipulation of them should not be a problem. This means array functionality such as sort, push, pop that would simply not make sense on a NodeList would make perfect sense on a StaticNodeList.