Hi

In DOM, is it OK to refer to an element's attributes like this:

var universe = document.getElementById('universe');
  universe.origin = 'big_bang';
  universe.creator = null;
  universe.style.deterministic = true;

? My deep respect for objects and their privacy, and my sense that things might go terribly wrong if I am not careful, makes me want to do everything more like this:

var universe = document.getElementById('universe');
  if(universe.hasAttribute('origin')) then universe.origin = 'big_bang'; 

etc...

Is it really necessary to use those accessor methods? Of course it may be more or less necessary depending on how certain I am that the elements I am manipulating will have the attributes I expect them to, but in general do the DOM guys consider it OK to use .notation rather than getters and setters?

Thanks!