Dojo 1.2 will sport a nice API standardization for widgets. Widget.attr() is now the standard interface for setting/getting all widget attributes. For example:
// set title
myTitlePane.attr('title', 'hello world');
// find out if button is disabled
var dis = myButton.attr('disabled');
// set to the current date
myDateTextBox.attr('value', new Date());
It also supports a hash API like dojo.attr(), for setting multiple attributes:
myInput.attr({ tabIndex: 3, disabled: true, value: 'hi'});

