Why can't Firefox parse HTML? - netscape.public.mozilla.dom

Message from discussion Why can't Firefox parse HTML?
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From: "Matthew Gertner" <matt...@acepoint.cz>
Newsgroups: netscape.public.mozilla.dom
Subject: Why can't Firefox parse HTML?
Date: 17 May 2005 06:37:37 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com
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I stumbled on a previous thread in this group:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/netscape.public.mozilla.dom/browse_thread/thread/22724c738fb67f0f/6fbfd47fb97c34d7
which claims that it is impossible to create a new HTML DOM document
from a Firefox script without displaying it in a new window. This means
that HTML screenscraping using XMLHttpRequest is not possible.

In a fit of pique I ranted about this on my blog
(http://www.allpeers.com/blog/?p=136). I was trying to be funny, but
the issue is serious. I'm probably missing something, but can someone
explain to me why the appropriate interfaces are not exposed to
scripters using XPCOM?

Cheers,
Matt