[XXE] Equivalent of start-column for row, in css or java?

[Bill Fenner]

With the introduction of the start-column property, I can get my
schema's tables to start rendering like tables.  The schema for this
table is like:

<table>
 <h>Header 1</h>
 <h>Header 2</h>
 <c>Row 1 Column 1</c>
 <c>Row 1 Column 2</c>
 <c>Row 2 Column 1</c>
 <c>Row 2 Column 2</c>
</table>

Previously, xxe simply couldn't render the table because of the lack
of table-row wrapper elements.  With the new start-column property, I
can get each row into the right column:

texttable > c {
        display: table-cell;
        start-column:
concatenate(xpath("if((count(preceding-sibling::c) + 1) mod
count(../h) = 0, count(../h), (count(preceding-sibling::c) + 1) mod
count(../h)) - 1"));
}

This gives me a layout like
Header 1
                Header 2
Row 1 Column 1
                Row 1 Column 2
Row 2 Column 1
                Row 2 Column 2

in a kind of staggered diagonal style.  With 3 columns, each row takes
3 rows, etc.

I'd love to have the same control over rows, somehow, without having
the row container object.  I'd gladly implement it in css or java.  Am
I dreaming?

Thanks,
  Bill