need the text to go away when clicked

[Arkady]

This is a really simple inline function. To place this anywhere else, especially in a separate file all on it's own, would be require ten times more code and increase the server request load. Not by a significant amount it's true but nevertheless; I can't think of any good argument for not using simple inline functions like this when it makes sense to do so.

[LeadMagnet]

What's the better way to do it then if that's deprecated?

[Harry]

Haha Eoin you know I know nothing about JS but I read it's best to let JS do all the work and leave markup untouched. I'm saying now I could be wrong but that means that the source I got it from is also wrong.

[jameson]

Rule #1 - jQuery and JavaScript Coding: Examples and Best Practices | How-To | Smashing Magazine

[Harry]

^ That's the one!

[LeadMagnet]

JS libraries. Bah! Hogwash!

[...Gav]

I just needed a very simple solution for a website that will be live for about 3 weeks.

Arkady you have hit the nail on the head mate, thank you very much :D

[Arkady]

I just needed a very simple solution for a website that will be live for about 3 weeks.

Arkady you have hit the nail on the head mate, thank you very much :D

My Pleasure.

[Scriptage]

The only realistic way of doing this is the way that Arkady has demonstrated. Microsoft has not implemented the W3C's event handling model, i.e., addEventListener(event, function, state); instead they implemented their own attachEvent which is pretty useless for doing anything with data from the object it is attached to.

You could of course do:

 
document.getElementById("foo").onclick = function(){

if(this.value == "Your name here") this.value = ""; 

};

but this needs to be placed after the element it is attached to in the code. This can be remedied by attaching the event after the page is loaded:

 
onload = function(){

   document.getElementById("foo").onclick = function(){

   if(this.value == "Your name here") this.value = ""; 

   };
 
};

This can get messy if you need to do numerous things at page load so you're probably going to want to create an event stacking function. It may look prettier in the markup but the Javascript is going to be awful.

I'm not sure it's worth it.

[Arkady]

^^^ My point almost exactly. Why replace a simple in-line statement with a mass of tangled code behind statements just because the trendies want total separation in all circumstances. It strikes me that there is a certain amount of coding fascism when it comes to these kinds of subjects. You do what works best, is the most readable and is the most economical in terms of available resources.