MSIE7/8 alerts a 'Failed' error when trying to get some attributes of VML objects

[lmeurs]

(Like mentioned at http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/9105)

MSIE7/8 experiences difficulties with getting some attributes of VML objects, attributes like 'type', 'innerHTML', 'outerHTML' and 'title'.

A simple thing like

alert(document.getElementById('vmlobject').type);

result in a mysterious 'Failed' error.

This bug effects Sizzle and jQuery, since both sometimes try to get the 'type' attribute of an element without checking the tagName first. Sizzle tests this attribute while selecting elements, jQuery tests this attribute when a 'submit' event is bound (actually, the function bound with 'click.specialSubmit' tests it).

I ran into this bug when working with Cufon and jQuery Address and boiled it down to a bare HTML/JS sample, a jQuery sample and a Cufon/jQuery Address sample:
 http://www.wishdesign.nl/fora/msie.vml.attribute.bug/
 http://www.wishdesign.nl/fora/msie.vml.attribute.bug/jquery.htm
 http://www.wishdesign.nl/fora/msie.vml.attribute.bug/jquery.address.htm

Extensively discussed at:  http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/jquery-cufon-dont-mix/
Reported to Sizzle:  https://github.com/jquery/sizzle/issues/17

(I tried to get a sample work on jsFiddle, but this did not work out because of the bug! See  http://jsfiddle.net/kwsuN/3/)

[john]

Unfortunately this is not likely something that we'll get around to fixing. If there is a patch (that doesn't cripple performance or bloat file size) then it's certainly something that we'll take a look at:  http://docs.jquery.com/Won%27t_Fix