(simple) AJAX question

[zoidberg]

Simple but annoying me.

Why, when you tell the browser to wait for a response from the server, do you not include parentheses on the function name?

i.e:

request.onreadystatechange = updatePage;

Why isn't it:

request.onreadystatechange = updatePage();

??

Cheers.

[dern]

I don't know the answer in the context your talking about but I suspect that you're passing a reference to the method that will be called when the event occurs rather than passing the return value from the method IYSWIM.

[beaker123]

In simple language, you are simply stating that the reference for a is equal to the reference for b, thus making a and b one and the same.

If you included brackets, you would be saying that a is equal to the return value of b.

...if you see what I mean.

[zoidberg]

Thanks for the replies, makes sense.