HTML 4.0, TABLE/TD width units incongruity

• From: Walter Ian Kaye <walter@natural-innovations.com>
• Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1999 09:53:28 -0800
• To: www-html@w3.org
• Message-Id: <v03130307b2c28a8d8b3d@[134.79.129.61]>

The HTML 4.0 spec (loose.dtd) indicates:

   <TABLE WIDTH="123"> --valid
   <TD    WIDTH="123"> --valid
   <TABLE WIDTH="50%"> --valid
   <TD    WIDTH="50%"> --invalid (!)

Why???  Looks like a mistake to me. Navigator and IE have supported
percentages as TD widths for a very long time, and it is absolutely
*vital* for scalability. Why does 4.0 specify only pixels for TD width?

I actually discovered this when I was at Macworld Expo last week,
complaining to BBEdit's author about his table editor. He pointed out
what the spec says, and I was stunned!

What's the deal here?


-baffled boo

Received on Wednesday, 13 January 1999 12:55:13 UTC