Re: [CSS21] properties for table-column (In HTML: COL) & table-column-group (In HTML: COLGROUP) items.

On 6/28/05, Paul Duncan <paul.duncan@marketpipe.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Woooooooh dude, I best get my text books on quantum thermo-nuclear 
dynamics
> out!! Impressive what can be done with the complex use of pseudo elements
> and selectors, but is that how people are expected to write CSS in the
> future?
> 
> The original sensible request was asking can we please add more properties
> to the <Col> spec allowing us to use styles colour, highlight, etc 
columns.
> 
> This request is a feature regularly used in data tables in the real world
> and so would be of great benefit to everyone if it was achievable simply 
and
> intuitively in CSS.
> 
> There are often claims about this being difficult for browsers to 
implement
> BUT I cannot see how a product such as Dreamweaver could ever manage to
> produce the css and code you suggest to colour a column!! And if they 
can't
> then will web authors ever produce well coded pages.

I really do not understand the resistance or claims of difficulty related to 
adding additional properties to the col and colgroup elements. UAs already 
have to support background-color, border, width and visibility; all of these 
except background effect the cell size. Determining the inheritance of these 
properties has not proved too difficult to implement nor required additional 
clarification in the CSS specification. 

As for Dreamweaver developers, I have great faith that they will be able to 
cope and deliver a product which can handle extra col element properties.

This is not a radical addition to the specification nor does it require 
radical changes to the various UAs in existence. In fact, IE 6.0 already 
supports the color property for col and colgroup elements and its 
implementation works as I have described how it should work in previous 
posts. The FireFox group has at least 60 reported bugs about col element 
proprieties. In each case the bug-reporter mistakenly believes that FireFox 
is in error because it does not support color, font or alignment as 
col-element properties. 

> 
> CSS is wonderful. But if this is the future then the W3C appear to be
> determined to Kill the Dream.
> 
> Please give us CSS we can use and start by add styling of columns to the
> spec.
> 
> Many thanks
> Paul
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: www-style-request@w3.org On Behalf Of Lachlan Hunt
> Subject: Re: [CSS21] properties for table-column (In HTML: COL) &
> table-column-group (In HTML: COLGROUP) items.
> 
> /* First Column
> 
> td:first-child { font-style: italic; }
> 
> 
> /* Second Column
> 
> td:not([colspan]):first-child+td,
> td[colspan="1"]:first-child+td,
> td[colspan]:not([colspan="1"]):first-child
> { font-weight: bold; }
> 
> 
> /* Third Column
> 
> td:not([colspan]):first-child+td:not([colspan])+td,
> td:not([colspan]):first-child+td[colspan="1"]+td,
> td:not([colspan]):first-child+td[colspan]:not([colspan="1"]),
> td[colspan="1"]:first-child+td:not([colspan])+td,
> td[colspan="1"]:first-child+td[colspan="1"]+td,
> td[colspan="1"]:first-child+td[colspan]:not([colspan="1"]),
> td[colspan="2"]:first-child+td,
> td[colspan]:not([colspan="1"]):not([colspan="2"]):first-child
> { text-decoration: underline; }
> 
> If more columns are added, it gets even more complex
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


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