Apologies for boring you, but Clarence pondered:
>http://www.fifi.org/services/ping-eng.html
>
>I have used the above page with Arachne 1.62 and 1.66, NS 2.02 and 3.04,
>and Opera 3.5?. It looks different in the different browsers but there
>is no difference between versions of the same browser.
>It looks best in Netscape. I'm talking about the main page only.
>
>Does anyone know what is supposed to set the relative table widths in
>a multiple column table if widths are not explicitly specified ?
Cell width depends on content. Even if you specify the width, if _some_
content e.g. <br> isn't included, Explorer may decide to ignore a cell
you want for page layout purposes.
As long as the content will fit in the cell/table dimensions, there'll
be some left-over space. Navigator and Explorer divide unspecified cell
widths proportionally, while Opera divides the left-over space equally,
so each cell will have (as near as dammit) the same number of pixels as
padding. This can give a much neater result.
>If I had written the rendering engine, I would have made each column
>come out at total/number of columns. Of course that's too simple and
>none of them did that.
If they can fit the widest content without a line-break in that scheme,
that's what they'll try and do. If you spec <nowrap>, then they might
enlarge the table to accommodate (suck it and see). Cell-text whose
length may spoil the overall layout may be narrowed by the use of
line-breaks. You can get equal cell widths by specifying equal percentage
widths, and using a bit of jiggery-pokery. Otherwise the table tries
to morph into a container for whatever you want to throw into it.
>But they each did something very different.
>
>Arachne seems to be understandable as she made column 2 just enough to
>accomodate the text input windows (which were also unspecified in size)
>and the result was about 85% col 1 and 15% col 2.
Looks horrible to me! However, accurate placement of form inputs is
tough for cross-browser looky-likey, often requiring the use of nested
tables.
>Netscape seemed to make an attractive division at about 70% col 1 (guess)
>and this put the column divisions directly above the right edge of the
>"RESET" button.
Not on my screen. Try re-sizing the window and that border will shift.
>Opera divided at about 60% with the division line not associated with
>any edge I could see.
You could have the buttons lined up by not centering nor using colspan=2.
The left cell should then be align=right.
>Just curious.
I wonder if O'Reilly publish "HTML for Cats"? Surely you've read
"Electronics for Dogs"?
All the best,
Jake
Sorry if this sounds complete junk, it really needs illustrating with
screen-shots from several browsers.
