Possible Inconsistency in HTML 4.01 Spec

• From: <fagricipni@fagricipni.com>
• Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2010 10:27:02 -0400
• To: www-html@w3.org
• Message-ID: <be476c4a8a81a79b9ba8407d3a0bb4a0.squirrel@QuestMail.FutureQuest.net>

In "11.2.4 Column groups" of the HTML 4.01 spec under the section "The COL
element" it says, speaking of the COL element: "They may appear inside or
outside an explicit column group (i.e., COLGROUP element)."  However,
under "11.2.1 The TABLE element", the quote from the DTD says: "11.2.1 The
TABLE element" and the DTDs it says: "<!ELEMENT TABLE - - (CAPTION?,
(COL*|COLGROUP*), THEAD?, TFOOT?, TBODY+)>".  If I understand "3.3.3
Element declarations" correctly, "(COL*|COLGROUP*)" means that a TABLE may
*directly* contain a set of COLGROUPs or a set of COLs, but not both.  To
get the behavior specified by the text under, "They may appear inside or
outside an explicit column group (i.e., COLGROUP element)", it should be
"(COL|COLGROUP)*".

Received on Monday, 9 August 2010 09:25:23 UTC