Re: [CSS2] More on tables

On Mon, 9 Feb 2004, fantasai wrote:
>>
>> First, can a column box span multiple columns. There is no reason why this
>> should not be the case, as far as I can see. One could imagine in CSS3
>> having:
>>
>>    mycolumn { display: table-column; col-span: 2; }
>>
>> ...be meaningful.
>
> What's the *point*?

The point was to explain that the current text is not self-contradictory.

Since there is no way, in CSS, to make columns span multiple rows, the
issue is rather academic.


>> The second issue is whether it is possible to represent <col span="">
>> using CSS and display:table-column. It would appear to me that it is not,
>
> Of course it's not.

In which case, that issue is also rather academic for 2.1.


>>>WinIE, Opera, and Mozilla all seem to follow this interpretation.
>>>(Opera and Mozilla respect borders, WinIE and Mozilla respect width.)
>>
>> WinIE doesn't support table-column, Opera and Mozilla both have hard-coded
>> ways of interpreting properties on <col>.
>
> Then the WinIE on my computer must be special, because it's handling
> CSS 'width' on <col> just fine.

I didn't say it didn't support 'width', I said it didn't support
'table-column'. In any case, Windows IE6's handling of tables is rather
non-compliant in pretty fundamental ways, as described in:

   http://ln.hixie.ch/?start=1070385285&count=1


> *points out, before Ian objects to the substitution of <col> for a
> 'table-column' element, that <col> is practically the only case worth
> modeling*

If that was the case, why bother having it in CSS? There is no point
having CSS include a feature whose sole purpose is to map a specific
element in a specific namespace to a specific rendering -- UAs can just
hardcode that knowledge. It would be a lot less bug-prone.


>> There is no current way to test if a UA actually supports what the spec
>> says or not, since there is no way to specify how many columns ...
>> column boxes should span.
>
> Then there's absolutely no reason why CSS2.1 should even suggest that
> such a thing would be possible.

It also says that cells can span multiple columns, but CSS has no way to
specify that either. HTML can specify cell spanning; other languages may
be able to specify column spanning.

Anyway, this all seems rather academic and not worth much consideration
at this late stage. It is at best an editorial issue.


>> Again, if UAs don't implement this right, the spec will have to change
>> before exiting CR.
>
> Define "right".

If UAs don't implement this according to the spec, the spec will have to
change before it can exit CR.

-- 
Ian Hickson                                      )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
U+1047E                                         /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
http://index.hixie.ch/                         `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Monday, 16 February 2004 09:59:19 UTC