适用于IE和Firefox:

<textarea maxlength="20" onkeyup="return isMaxLen(this)"></textarea> 

<script type="text/javascript"> 
function isMaxLen(o){ 
 var nMaxLen=o.getAttribute? parseInt(o.getAttribute("maxlength")):""; 
 if(o.getAttribute && o.value.length>nMaxLen){ 
 o.value=o.value.substring(0,nMaxLen) 
 } 

</script>