Specifying the width of table cells

In HTML 3.2, the TD and TH elements could take a width
attribute.  In HTML 4.0's draft specification, TD and TH
elements can no longer take an attribute of width.

Even with the introduction of COLGROUP and COLS, and the
emphasis on faster display of tables, it seems that it is
still useful to allow cell widths.

Since COLGROUP and COLS are recommended but not required,
and the two-pass method currently employed (which considers
and honors cell widths) is still considered by HTML 4.0 as
one of the two possible approaches to rendering a table,
it seems premature to remove the cell elements' width
attribute.

Is there some resource or section that will give me more
insight into why this attribute was removed from TD and
TH?
-- 
E. Stephen Mack <estephen@emf.net>
http://www.emf.net/~estephen/

Received on Sunday, 13 July 1997 05:59:52 UTC