Event handlers vs. event listeners

[rygar48]

Hey everyone, so I am in the process of learning Javascript via e-book (not the best way, I know, but it's how I learned PHP, so I thought it would do. The book I'm reading is "Simply Javascript") but I'm a little confused on event handlers vs. event listeners.

Someone told me that event listeners are to add the possibility of an event onto something that doesn't already have a listener on it, whereas a handler would be used to handle something that already has a listener on it (i.e a link). But in this book, it says that event listeners are to always be used, as they are more efficient/powerful than handlers. In their examples, they even use a listener on a link.

SO, what's the difference/which should I use? Handlers seem much easier...

[Dormilich]

that depends … (as always)

event handlers are well supported (i.e. work the same in every browser, even IE), but only allow one function.

event listeners allow several functions to be executed, allow event capturing/bubbling, but IE is a pain in the **** here.

event listeners are indeed more powerful/efficient.

[rnd me]

for simple things, i prefer handlers.
for complicated things like trees and grids, listeners allow a single function to monitor the activity of several nodes.