title: What does WebElement.clear() Do to TextBoxes?
body: <p>I've recently run into a problem working with selenium where calling <code>clear()</code> on a custom text box causes issues when entering text later in the test. The text box does check for (<code>JavaScript</code>) <code>browserEvents</code>, particularly <code>keyDown</code> events. I tried figuring out what <code>clear()</code> does to see if that could be affecting things, but I can't seem to find any specifics. </p>
  
  <p>The source for the Selenium Java bindings <a href="https://code.google.com/p/selenium/source/browse/java/client/src/org/openqa/selenium/WebElement.java" rel="noreferrer">shows that <code>clear()</code> does not use keyboard or mouse simulation</a> to clear away the text from the text box. So what does it do, exactly? </p>