Re: Empty table cells

Just to clearify, my original post was ment more like a question then like
an answer. The question was

Is the currntly specified behaviour (remove background and outlines of empty
cells) intended, thus breaking compability with html tables. Or was it ment
that empty cells should be hidden only when "empty-cells" is set to "hide"?

/ Jonas Sicking

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonas Sicking" <sicking@bigfoot.com>
To: <www-style@w3.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2000 1:21
Subject: Empty table cells


> Hi!
>
> The CSS2 spec says in chapter 17.5.1
> http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/tables.html#table-layers point 6
>
> "The topmost layer contains the cells themselves. As the figure shows,
> although all rows contain the same number of cells, not every cell may
have
> specified content. These "empty" cells are transparent, letting lower
layers
> shine through."
>
> This would mean that table-cells that have no content should be hidden.
> There is however a property 'empty-cells' that says that empty cells
indeed
> should have borders.
>
> I see three problems with this.
>
> 1. It is not possible to display backgrounds on empty cells.
>
> I.e. the following rule would still not make give the cell a green
> background.
>
> TD#AnEmptyCell { empty-cells: show; background: green }
>
> 2. CSS tables is incompatible with HTML tables.
>
> HTML has no special rules for empty cells so they should have backgrounds
> just as any other HTML element.
>
> 3. 'empty-cells: show' is not a very good name
>
> It gives the impression that empty cells should be shown when in fact the
> cell is hidden with exception of it's borders.
>
> My proposed solution is that empty tablecells should get no special
> treatment except when empty-cells are set to 'hide'. The difference would
be
> showing backgrounds and outlines (and maybe other things in the future)
for
> the cell when appropriate.
>
> / Jonas Sicking

Received on Wednesday, 20 September 2000 18:37:04 UTC