Re: HTML5 Validator doesn't appear to understand colspan

Hello and thank you for the quick response.

I see what you are saying and it makes much more sense now. I just
think anything, even a simple link to the HTML5 specification, is
better than what it is now. That is difficult logic to try and explain
in a brief statement.

At least to me, this made it click in my mind:

"It is OK to make a cell extend to several columns or, to use the
HTML5 terms, to occupy several “slots,” but it is not OK to create a
column that exists *only* via colspan attributes, without having real
cells of its own"

A modified version of that may go a long way:

"Table cells can span multiple columns through the use of the colspan
attribute as long as all columns have their own cells in at least one
row of the table. Table columns cannot exist only via the colspan
attribute. This is a violation of the <a href=...>HTML5 table
model</a>"

Whatever the exact rhetoric, I think your explanation is short, sweet
and gets the point across.

- Pat

Received on Friday, 30 December 2011 18:43:31 UTC