[#248] Data and layout tables: identifying and marking

Action item from our call yesterday - Here's a summary of my proposals and
questions regarding this bug/concern:

Proposals:
- add a statement that tables be used for entirely data or layout and not
mixed
- describe conditions under which layout tables may be used instead of style
sheets
- only the first layout table requires a summary. Following layout tables
have a summary of "layout table" or NULL ("").
- layout tables should have short summaries (less than 150 characters
[English])
- remove the statement "Until user agents render side-by-side text
correctly, provide a linear text equivalent...".
- add a statement that TH, TBODY, THEAD should not be used at all in layout
tables
- add a statement that CAPTION should not be used in layout tables.
- add a statement to discourage the use of TITLE from layout tables. Use the
summary instead.
- add a statement to discourage the use of headers, scope and access in
layout tables

Questions:
- Is it realistic that style sheets be used instead of layout tables?
- Is it wrong to use HTML color attributes in tables? Should we remove the
statement about using CSS instead of HTML code to style table cells?
- Is linearizing a table still a problem? How do we test for "makes sense"?
- "...developers may minimize the risk of word wrapping by limiting the
amount of text in each cell" Is this still a good
suggestion?
- do COLSPAN and ROWSPAN need a mention on their use in layout tables

Chris

Received on Thursday, 29 May 2003 09:53:46 UTC