Understanding DHTML

Although DOM is a "real" technical term, DHTMLor Dynamic HTMLis not. DHTML is a pure marketing term. Back when the term was coined, all it meant was something along the lines of "JavaScript for browsers version number 4 and up." Back then, Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer were fighting the legendary browser war, and with their version 4, both vendors included more dynamic JavaScript features, unfortunately quite incompatible with each other. Most DHTML effects now and then cover positioning elements and changing them upon user action.

With Netscape 4 and Internet Explorer 4 long gone, recent versions of both browser brands (remember that Netscape 6 followed Netscape 4 and is based on Mozilla's Gecko Engine) support DOM reasonably well (although there are still some missing elements). Therefore, DHTML was reborn, since dynamic JavaScript effects are nowadays possible with only a small amount of browser-specific code and client sniffing.