Simplify creating a node list from a node

[Les]

Currently, when I want to create node list from a node I need to write:

var nl = new dojo.NodeList(dojo.byId("foo"));

This is too verbose IMO. Creating a node list should be much simpler, e.g.

var nl2 = dojo("foo");

[alex]

A simpler form is already available:

var nl3 = dojo.query("#foo");

[James Burke]

More info:

You can do:

var nl1 = dojo.query("#foo");

Or, if you already have a node,

var nl2 = dojo.query(nodeRef);

If you like, you can create your own alias too:

function $() {
    return dojo.query.apply(dojo, arguments);
}

var nl3 = $("#foo");

I like the idea of having a dojo() function, but I think it should map to the general dojo namespace and not just a wrapper around dojo.query/NodeList. I describe that a bit in this post: ​http://tagneto.blogspot.com/2009/03/namespaces-subjects-and-verbs-in.html

Does one of the above examples work for you?

[dante]

also, you might find dojo.node("foo") useful/concise:

​http://code.google.com/p/dojotype/source/browse/trunk/_base/Node.js

(note: it is not 1:1 with NodeList? api's, nor is it completely unit tested, just thought I'd pass it along. The returned element is a decorated version of the node with NodeList?-like api's attached (minus .forEach and other array methods))

we'd discussed the possibility of making dojo a function decorated with the APIs, but discarded it as too much magic, and as james points out should not be limited to query, disregarding all the other useful functions.

also dojo.conflict() in plugd gives you $("#f00") as a NodeList? instantiation, among other things.

[dante]

not in 1.x at least. The available options must suffice. we can't overload dojo to be a fn like this now.