[jQuery] can only modify DOM via debugger

[knairb01]

Hi

I've got a problem. I'm running Firefox 2.0.0.11, Firebug 1.0, jQuery
1.2.1. I have the following code in a Genshi template for a toy
TurboGears 2.0 app:


$(document).ready(function() {
    $("a").click(function() {
    var coursename = $(this)[0].attributes['coursename'].nodeValue;
    var mydata = $.get("http://localhost:8080/course/"; + coursename +
"/", {}, function(mydata) {
               return mydata;
               });
    var str1 = mydata.responseText.substring(5,7);
    var textAreaNode=document.getElementById('test');
    textAreaNode.value += str1;
    return false;
    });
});


When the user clicks a link, the code above attempts to put text in
the textarea. When I step through the code with Firebug, it works, but
it doesn't when I run it without the debugger. Also, the code will
work when I run it straight through if str1 is a hard-coded string;
such as if the line is "var str1 = "my string";".

Thank you for any help you can give.