Bug 11103 – ER: add support for string value for align attribute from HTML 4.01

• Status: RESOLVED
• Resolution: WONTFIX
• Component: Tables

[Robert Burns]

HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0 through 1.1 have a table attribute to horizontally align cells on a particular character. e.g.:
, <td align="char" char="." charoff="2">121.12</td>

WebKit does not seem to support the char value for the align attribute. These attributes were sometimes considered deprecated as presentational attributes however CSS dropped the ball on that presentational property. Another bug is forthcoming on that property.

[Robert Burns]

see bug http://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11104 for the missing CSS method of presenting horizontally aligned cells.

[Robert Blaut]

The HTML 4.01 spec says: "char = character [CN]
This attribute specifies a single character within a text fragment to act as an axis for alignment. The default value for this attribute is the decimal point character for the current language as set by the lang attribute (e.g., the period (".") in English and the comma (",") in French). User agents are not required to support this attribute."

Considering also the fact an align attribute is dropped from HTML5 specification the bug should be resolved as WONTFIX

[Robert Burns]

(In reply to comment #2)
> 
> Considering also the fact an align attribute is dropped from HTML5
> specification the bug should be resolved as WONTFIX
> 

HTML5 is only a working draft. It is inappropriate to cite a working draft in a situation like this.

[Robert Blaut]

(In reply to comment #3)
> (In reply to comment #2)
> > 
> > Considering also the fact an align attribute is dropped from HTML5
> > specification the bug should be resolved as WONTFIX
> > 
> 
> HTML5 is only a working draft. It is inappropriate to cite a working draft in a
> situation like this.
> 

Do you foresee that align attribute will be restored in HTML5? I really doubt it's possible. But I would like to see Dave's comment on this issue.

[Robert Burns]

(In reply to comment #4)
> Do you foresee that align attribute will be restored in HTML5? I really doubt
> it's possible. But I would like to see Dave's comment on this issue.
> 

I think it's difficult to anticipate that. However, there's a problem the W3C has to deal with in that it has to reconcile its desire to move the align functionality to CSS with the fact that CSS 2 align functionality has not been implemented and CSS3 table module has not even reached a working draft stage yet. So this bug and bug# 11104 are intricately intwined. Right now I think there is more browser support for HTML table alignment than CSS table alignment. Ideally WebKit would support either one.

(also, keep in mind that the leaders of HTML5 suggest it may not become a recommendation for more than 10 years, so we should focus on HTML4.01 and XHTML 1 and 1.1 for now)

[Robert Blaut]

(In reply to comment #5)
>
> (also, keep in mind that the leaders of HTML5 suggest it may not become a
> recommendation for more than 10 years, so we should focus on HTML4.01 and XHTML
> 1 and 1.1 for now)
> 

Rob, keep in mind that "User agents are not required to support this attribute"  according to HTML 4.01 ;) So it should be eventually  considered as enhancement request. 

[Robert Burns]

I changed the severity to enhancement. I definitely agree that it should be considered an enhancement. Regardless of whether it is required or recommended by HTML4.01, it is still an enhancement.

[Adam Barth]

This does not appear to have been added to HTML5, which is now in Last Call.