[jQuery] non-recursive element filtering

[Dominique]

hi,

i have been trying to do something simple for the last couple of hours
and i
just can't seem to solve this problem:

maybe easier to give a dom tree first:
...
<div class="list">
    <div class="item"> A
        <div class="list" style="margin-left:10px;">
            <div class="item">1 <button>+</button></div>
            <div class="item">2 <button>+</button></div>
            <div class="item">3 <button>+</button></div>
        </div>
        <button>+</button>
    </div>
    <div class="item"> B
        <div class="list" style="margin-left:10px;">
            <div class="item">1 <button>+</button></div>
            <div class="item">2 <button>+</button></div>
            <div class="item">
                3
                <div class="list" style="margin-left:10px;">
                    <div class="item">3.1 <button>+</button></div>
                    <div class="item">3.2 <button>+</button></div>
                    <div class="item">3.3 <button>+</button></div>
                </div>
                <button>+</button>
            </div>
        </div>
        <button>+</button>
    </div>
</div>
...

given the outer DIV.list element, how can i find all BUTTON elements,
except
for the ones that are in sub DIV.list's?

i would have thought something like $
(myouterdiv).find('button:not('.list
button)') would have worked, but apparently not...

$(myouterdiv).find('button').not('.list button') gives the same
results

i have tried plenty of other selectors, but nothing works...

any idea what could be wrong with that at all?
It just gives me all the BUTTON elements... if anything, i would have
expected it to give me zero since myouterdiv also has the .list class


cheers,
dominique