Man, this is still a lot more code to handle.

Right, but what if you want to add some fancy hover effect?

WRONG

<a href="#" onClick="Application.showEntry(1); return false;" onMouseOver="this.fade('out', .5);" onMouseOut="this.fade('in');">Show entry</a>
	    

COOL

$$('a.show-entry').each(function(el){
  el.addEvent('click', function(e){
    e = Event(e).stop();
			
    $('container').load(el.get('href'));
  });
		
  el.addEvent('mouseenter', function(){
    el.fade('out', .5);
  });
		
  el.addEvent('mouseleave', function(){
    el.fade('in');
  });
});
	    

We don't need to touch the HTML to accomplish this effect.