Re: Tag / element question

>             It's often used for totals of numerical data.

No.  It is not for that purpose.  It is for information that should
be available at all times that part of the table is being used.
E.g. to stay on the screen when any part of the table is on the
screen, or be printed at the foot of the part of a table on each
page.  This intention seems to be quite clear in the specification
<http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/tables.html#h-11.2.3>:

   [207]TBODY elements, respectively. This division enables user agents
   to support scrolling of table bodies independently of the table head
   and foot. When long tables are printed, the table head and foot
   information may be repeated on each page that contains table data.

> It does seem logical, even though it's wrong, but I've been unable to 
> explain why it's wrong, other than it's how the DTD specifies it.

This is also quite clearly explained in the specification and is a logical
consequence of the desire for incremental rendering and the above:

   [212]TFOOT must appear before [213]TBODY within a [214]TABLE
   definition so that user agents can render the foot before receiving
   all of the (potentially numerous) rows of data. The following

The reason for some of the cryptic comments is that the only real distinction
between THEAD and TFOOT is presentational.

Received on Saturday, 18 September 2004 09:23:07 UTC