function setMaxLength() {
	var aTextareas = document.getElementsByTagName('textarea');
	var nTextareas = aTextareas.length;
	
	var counter = document.createElement('div');
	counter.className = 'counter';
	for (var i=0;i<nTextareas;i++)
	{
		if (getVagueClass(aTextareas[i],'maxlength'))
		{
			var counterClone = counter.cloneNode(true);
			counterClone.relatedElement = aTextareas[i];
			counterClone.innerHTML = '<span>0</span> characters: maximum '+getVagueClass(aTextareas[i],'maxlength');
			aTextareas[i].parentNode.insertBefore(counterClone,aTextareas[i].nextSibling);
			aTextareas[i].relatedElement = counterClone.getElementsByTagName('span')[0];
			
			aTextareas[i].onkeyup = aTextareas[i].onchange = checkMaxLength;
			aTextareas[i].onkeyup();
		}
	}
}

function checkMaxLength() {

	var maxLength = getVagueClass(this,'maxlength');
	var currentLength = this.value.length;
	if (currentLength > maxLength)
		this.relatedElement.className = 'toomuch';
	else
		this.relatedElement.className = '';
	this.relatedElement.firstChild.nodeValue = currentLength;
	// not innerHTML
}

addEventSimple(window,'load',setMaxLength);