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:
myTitlePane.attr('title', 'hello world'); // set title
var dis = myButton.attr('disabled'); // find out if button is disabled
myDateTextBox.attr('value', new Date()); // set to the current date
It also supports a hash API like dojo.attr(), for setting multiple attributes:
myInput.attr({ tabIndex: 3, disabled: true, value: 'hi'});

