Bug #6167

Definition of a column seems somewhat far from spec

Details

Request #6167	Definition of a column seems somewhat far from spec
Submitted	2005-12-06 10:59 UTC
From	sebastien_mouren at hotmail dot com
Assigned	wiesemann
Status	Closed
Package	HTML_Table
PHP Version	Irrelevant
OS	Irrelevant
Roadmaps	(Not assigned)

Comments

[2005-12-06 10:59 UTC] sebastien_mouren at hotmail dot com

Description:
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HTML_Table seems to define a table column by its header cell (td or th) rather than using col and colgroup as defined by the HTML4 and XHTML specifications. This behavior allows support from many old-but-still-pervasive user-agents and relies on anonymous element insertion for column definition on user-agents that support it. Nowadays, more and more browsers support these column definition HTML elements.

I think would be interesting to define such column element explicitly for semantics as much as styling.
The risk to loose older browser support could be discarded by a fallback to the actual behavior if the author didn’t explicitly define its use in a well implemented set col/colgroup function.

[2005-12-13 09:49 UTC] sebastien_mouren at hotmail dot com

Regarding browser support, I set-up a test page to obtain more information about <col>, <colgroup> and their attribute supports (CSS too). I will keep you informed of the results.
<col>/<colgroup> supports in HTML_Table more flexibility and clarity in table setup. And it still offer huge adavantages in XHTML and CSS for expressing content separation or group and for easier styling.
Thinking about the implementation side, it should be envisaged to default to a "quirk"(current) mode or to use the more expressive one.
I'll keep this request updated with my research status progress.