[Bug 24605] New: Make the use of <table border="1"> RECOMMENDED default in polyglot/robust documents and tools

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=24605

            Bug ID: 24605
           Summary: Make the use of <table border="1"> RECOMMENDED default
                    in polyglot/robust documents and tools
           Product: HTML WG
           Version: unspecified
          Hardware: PC
                OS: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: HTML/XHTML Compatibility Authoring Guide (ed: Eliot
                    Graff)
          Assignee: eliotgra@microsoft.com
          Reporter: xn--mlform-iua@xn--mlform-iua.no
        QA Contact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org
                CC: eliotgra@microsoft.com, mike@w3.org,
                    public-html-admin@w3.org,
                    public-html-wg-issue-tracking@w3.org

As this specification represents a robust profile, Polyglot Markup ought to
make use of  border="1" on the the table element a *recommended*
default/practise.

Justification:

0) Background: Usability studies show that users make fewer reading errors if
tables highllights columns and rows. Borders is the simplest way to highlight
columns and rows. Zebra striping is another method. Any disagreement that that
such highlighting often is beneficial has not been recorded. In itself, these
observation does not speak for or against border=1 as CSS can achieve the same
as border=1

1) However, with @border=1 present, there is a better fallback & survival story
in UAs. Without @border=1, if the CSS to highlight columns and rows were to
disappear or, if the UA did not support CSS, usability would become worse than
necessary.


2) @border=1 does not hamper authors since, if there is a valid use case to
remove the borders (such as ”I prefer zebra stripes to borders”), then it is a
simple to to remove borders ...
       <style>table, td, th { border: none}</style>
   ... as it is to *add* borders ...
       <style>table, td, th {border:solid 1px;}</style>

3) Nevertheless, to recommend tools and authors to default to border=1, would
cause tables of polyglot markup to become more robust against authoring misuse.
This is so because the very need to remove the attribute (and possibly get a
warning, if the validator supports polyglot) or add CSS, would be a barrier
against uncritical use of layout tables.

By the way:

A) A neutral description of @border=1 could be to say that it constitutes a
*second* rendering-default - a default where tables are rendered *with*
borders. The other default, nameely to not render borders, is what authors get
when the @border attribute is omitted.

B) The table@border=1 attribute is fully permitted by HTML5, but authors are
free to add it or drop it. Whether to use is is thus optional, and its use does
not represent a plus or a minus as such, per the HTML5 specification.

C) To avoid that ”weak souls” might not see these issues as clearly would
dismiss this spec based on a single attribute they disagree with,  we should
only make it recommended - not required.

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Received on Monday, 10 February 2014 17:49:03 UTC