Question

For example:

var a = document.getElementById("divVar");
    a.style.font="bold 13px verdana";
    a.style.color="#F00";
    ...

with(document.getElementById("divWith")){
    style.font="bold 14px Georgia";
    style.color="#00F";
    ...
}

Which one do you think is better?

Answer 1

with() is considered harmful by Mr Crockford.

The reason? It is very easy to clobber existing variables, if the property you think exists doesn’t, for example.

From the article…

If you can’t read a program and be confident that you know what it is going to do, you can’t have confidence that it is going to work correctly. For this reason, the with statement should be avoided.

The compromise is your first example.