>Does the business with '?' just redefine the expression following in Netscape terms? -- that's what it looks like.

Yes, it roughly translates to:

if (row.cells[2].innerText ) {
//browser type is IE and supports innerText property
var city = row.cells[2].innerText; }
else {
//browser is Netscape
var city = row.cells[2].firstChild.nodeValue; }