Firefox: pass event from anonymous javascript function

Question

In this abbreviated code, the inline event works - the "event" is passed to the testKeyPress function

<textarea id="source"
    onkeydown= "showCursPos(this); 
    var tf=testKeyPress(event);
    document.onkeypress=function(){return tf};
    document.onkeydown=function(){return tf}; " ></textarea>

function testKeyPress(e){
    if (e.ctrlKey==true ){
        if (e.which == null ){kcode=e.keyCode; }  // IE
        else if (e.which > 0){kcode=e.which; }    // gecko
        return testValidity(kcode);   //returns true-false
    }
}

However, in this anonymous version, the event is not passed in gecko:

<textarea id="source"></textarea>

$("source").onkeydown = function(){ 
    showCursPos(this);  // this function works
    // next event is passed in IE, but not gecko
    var tf=testKeyPress(event); 
    // remaining functions work if value is forced
    document.onkeypress=function(){return tf}; 
    document.onkeydown=function(){return tf}; 
    }

How does one pass the function's own event?

Answer 1

Yes, there is an event object as arguments.

You can get it by

var e=arguments[0] || event; // Firefox via the argument, but IE don't

I don't know if they exact the same, but I read <xxx onkeydown="func(event);"> as xxx.ononkeydown=function(event){func(event);};

Reference event @ Mozilla.org