Retrieve The Value In TextArea With The Newline Preserved.

I am trying to retrieved the value of the textarea with the newline
preserved without having to submit the form to the server. Does anyone
knows how to? I tried soft and hard wrap but both does not seems to
affect the input in anyway.

Example :
<form name=frm>
<textarea name=ta wrap="soft"></textarea>
</form>
<script language=javascript>
alert(document.frm.ta.value) // <-- the alerted value should look
exactly as what is entered in the textbox.
</script>