HTML event handler attributes: down the rabbit hole (via) onclick="myfunction(event)" is an idiom for passing the click event to a function - but how does it work? It turns out the answer is buried deep in the HTML spec - the browser wraps that string of code in a function(event) { ... that string ... } function and makes the event available to its local scope that way.
Recent articles
- Useful patterns for building HTML tools - 10th December 2025
- Under the hood of Canada Spends with Brendan Samek - 9th December 2025
- Highlights from my appearance on the Data Renegades podcast with CL Kao and Dori Wilson - 26th November 2025