Question

Is there any reason that most information I see about form submission via Javascript is done with anchor links:

<a id="submitButton" href="#">Submit</a>

instead of

<button id="submitButton">Submit</button>

Javascript:

$("#submitButton").click(function(){
    //do whatever
});

I cannot think of any reason that this is the standard practice, but maybe I am missing something?

Answer 1

Historically, it was been easier to style links to look like Not A Standard Button then rig up form submission with JS (calling the submit() method, doing something ajaxy, etc) instead of styling a real button.

There’s no reason to beyond the cosmetic, and the lack of graceful degradation gives a good reason not to.

Use a regular submit button.