Table and tags and N4.x

Mon, 04 Dec 2000 04:03:36 -0800 

This is not necessarily a bug in Mozilla (Win98 2000112908) but it shows
a reason why Mozilla's Composer cannot practically be used on the same
files as Netscape 4.x (4.7 in my case).

It probably illuminates some incorrect behaviour by Mozilla composer -
such as the inclusion of duplicate pairs of tbody tags in the one table.


Create a file with a simple table in Netscape and save it.  The body is:

------------ t1
 
<table BORDER COLS=2 WIDTH="100%" >
<tr>
<td>Left</td>

<td>Right</td>
</tr>
</table>

------------


Open it with with Mozilla and save:

------------ t2
 <body>
 &nbsp; 
<table border="1" cols="2" width="100%">
 <tbody>
    <tr>
 <td>Left</td>
  <td>Right</td>
 </tr>
 
  </tbody>
</table>
  
------------

Mozilla has added a pair of "tbody" tags around the rows of the table,
as well as some unwanted spaces. 

Open this with N4.x.  A new dotted blue line box appears above the
table.  It has two HTML tags inside it: <tbody> and </tbody>.  The file
is saved as it appears in the View Source window:

------------ t3
&nbsp;
<table BORDER COLS=2 WIDTH="100%" >
<caption><tbody>
<br></tbody></caption>

<tr>
<td>Left</td>

<td>Right</td>
</tr>
</table>

------------

N4.x has coralled the tbody tags in some caption tags.

Open this with Mozilla, and the top border of the table looks a little
thicker.  Save the file, which contains what the View HTML Source mode
shows. (But don't save after using HTML View!  That gives a different
file altogether.  The file saved after HTML View has more spaces, less
blank lines and does not have the first <tbody> </tbody> pair.)

------------ t4
 &nbsp; <br>
<table border="1" cols="2" width="100%">
 <caption><br>
  </caption><tbody>
 
  </tbody>  <tbody>
    <tr>
 <td>Left</td>
  <td>Right</td>
 </tr>
 
  </tbody>
</table>
  
------------

Mozilla has expelled the tbody tags from within caption tags, and
created a new pair of tbody tags around the row of the table.

Read this into N4.x and it shows 4 tags in the box on top of the table.
Deleting these tags does not get rid of the box.

Save this from N4.x:

------------ t5
&nbsp;
<table BORDER COLS=2 WIDTH="100%" >
<caption>&nbsp;
<br><tbody></tbody><tbody>
<br></tbody></caption>

<tr>
<td>Left</td>

<td>Right</td>
</tr>
</table>

------------

N4.x has now placed the two pairs of tbody tags inside the caption
tags.  

Open this with Mozilla and save. (Don't touch the "View HTML Source"
Daddyo!!  That changes things.)

Save this file:

------------ t6
 &nbsp; <br>
<table border="1" cols="2" width="100%">
 <caption>&nbsp; <br>
  </caption><tbody>
  </tbody><tbody>
 
  </tbody>  <tbody>
    <tr>
 <td>Left</td>
  <td>Right</td>
 </tr>
 
  </tbody>
</table>
  
------------

Open with N4.x and there are now 6 tags in the top box!  

Save this as:

------------ t7
&nbsp;
<table BORDER COLS=2 WIDTH="100%" >
<caption>&nbsp;
<br><tbody></tbody><tbody></tbody><tbody>
<br></tbody></caption>

<tr>
<td>Left</td>

<td>Right</td>
</tr>
</table>

------------

There's no way of deleting this pesky box in N4.x, though the tags can
be deleted.  


Mozilla insists on putting tbody tags around the rows of a table.

The tbody tags annoy N4.x and it invents some caption tags to contain
them.  But the caption tags add a blank space above the table in both
Mozilla and N4.x's browser.

Mozilla Composer doesn't think the tbody tags belong in the the caption,
so it boots them out, (unless you use View HTML Source, which seems to
get rid of them) leaving them empty and before the tbody tags it also
adds around the table rows.

There's no obvious way of deleting the caption in either N4.x or
Mozilla.

I haven't checked which program is at odds with the relevant HTML spec.

These problems mean that it is currently impractical to use N4.x and
Mozilla in turn on the one document which contains tables, unless
Mozilla is used exclusively after N4.x.

If Mozilla's insistence on tbody tags - or more likely its saving of a
file with multiple pairs of tbody tags - is against HTML standards, then
I will report it as a bug.  

The above files are at:  

  http://gair.firstpr.com.au/public-files/mozilla-bugs/



- Robin

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