One of my pet peeves is the incorrect use of technical terminology in public. Sometimes I feel like I’m some sort of linguistic elitist when I point out that not everything interesting done in JavaScript is "AJAX." But unlike those who obstinately repeat “ain’t ain’t a word,” technically meaningless terminology actually affects people’s ability to communicate.
>> If I have a form element like
>> <input type="text" name="mydata">
>> Is there a way to select it in a similar manner to getElemntById()?
>
> var nameArray = document.getElementsByTagName('mydata');
I can' seem to get getElementsByTagName working. I am not sure what I am doing wrong.
This confused individual thought “TagName” referred to the “name” attribute. Why would anyone think the “name” attribute was a tag? Because hundreds of people go around referring to attributes and tags. Stop it. You’re confusing people. If you don’t know what a technical term means, don’t use it. Use plain English instead.
And they're not doing it because they want to shift the meaning; that's just the unfortunate consequence. They're doing it because they want to use the buzzwords they hear everyone else using so they can sound like they know what they're talking about, but they're too lazy to learn what the buzzwords really mean.
It's like people walking around saying "automobile" because they think it sounds better than "car," only they use it to refer to anything with wheels. Then you tell someone you need an automobile to get somewhere quickly, and they give you a bicycle.