table, cell, heading, row, header, TD, TH,TR: part of my review of 3.15 Tabular data

table, DOM, cell, heading, header, TD, TH: part of my review of 3.15  
Tabular data
Re:<http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/~checkout~/html5/spec/Overview.html? 
rev=1.78#tabular>

SUMMARY
--------------------------------
  •  editorial suggestions

HTMLTableRowElement interface
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For the paragraph defining the "cells" DOM attribute:

"The cells attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the tr  
element, whose filter matches only td and th elements that are  
children of the tr element."

Should the cells DOM attribute: add the phrase "in document order" or  
"in tree order"?


TD
--------------------------------

In the paragraph:
"The td element may also have a rowspan content attribute specified,  
whose value must be a valid non-negative integer. Its default value,  
which must be used if parsing the attribute as a non-negative integer  
returns an error, is also 1."

Consider removing the word also so that the paragraph can stand alone  
(appearing twice). The "also"s refer to the previous definition of  
the colspan attribute. Someone skimming the spec as a reference may  
be confused by the word "also" and it adds nothing to the paragraph.

The paragraphs describing the colspan and rowspan DOM language differ  
though they I expect share the same behaviors:

"The colspan DOM attribute must reflect the content attribute of the  
same name, with the exception that on setting, if the new value is 0,  
then an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception must be raised.
The rowspan DOM attribute must reflect the content attribute of the  
same name."

I don't have a strong preference for whether the colspan or the  
rowspan should be the form to use. If we go with the shorter rowspan  
form, then a separate paragraph should address the throwing of  
exceptions for both DOM attributes.

TH
--------------------------------

for the @scope attribute is the explicit value of "auto" allowed? If  
not state that it is not. If it is allowed state that.

in the paragraph discussing the value  "auto" for the @scope  
attribute, it should clearly state that only TH cells in the first  
row of the table or the the first column of the table will have any  
data cells associated with them (according to the algorithm). Also  
address in the prose here whether "first row of the table" includes  
THEAD or TFOOT row groups: i.e., is that in tree order or table order?

Received on Thursday, 9 August 2007 13:29:08 UTC