[CSS2.1] col attributes: XHTML and CSS inconsistency?

XHTML-1.0 strict DTD, which is a recommendation, says here
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/dtds.html#dtdentry_xhtml1-strict.dtd_col
:
"<!--
 col elements define the alignment properties for cells in
 one or more columns.

 The width attribute specifies the width of the columns, e.g.

     width=64        width in screen pixels
     width=0.5*      relative width of 0.5

 The span attribute causes the attributes of one
 col element to apply to more than one column.
-->
<!ATTLIST col
  %attrs;
  span        %Number;       "1"
  width       %MultiLength;  #IMPLIED
  %cellhalign;
  %cellvalign;
  >
"

while CSS-2.1 specifications, which is NOT a recommendation, says there:
http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/tables.html#columns
:
"The following properties apply to column and column-group elements:

'border'
(…) 
'background'
(…) 
'width'
(…) 
'visibility' "

Since I'm not a specialist at all, it's probable I didn't understand something, but according to the number of reported bugs declared "invalid" about this in Firefox's bugzilla
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=285184
I'm not the only one. Moreover Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox reportedly behave differently. What I understand is that XHTML says "col" should support alignment attributes, and CSS says it shouldn't... It's not very coherent. At least, the rule should be explained and warned of in the recommendation. But in my opinion it'd be better to allow within CSS the attributes allowed directly in XHTML.

Received on Friday, 26 December 2008 05:06:41 UTC