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[ M a x i m u m   R.F.C.  T a b l e ]
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[A rip off]

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[COLGROUP]
[suffering]

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. 		We have made assorted collection of table specimens to watch their distorted features pervertually dismayed by the heavy gearing of the elecron-clanking enticingly entangling soft net scraping ware.

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R.F.C. here does not mean whatever anybody may think. We using R.F.C. as absurd letter combination able to experess adjunctive extremity, symbolizing some vague all-embracing property of tables which reaches its peak on this exacly page, but elusively evading any scientific or common sense definition.

A rip off

In a shame defying move we boldly culled example pieces from the table RFC and courageously put them here.

Watch them in awe and shudder randomly.

Example number one (medium)

A test table with merged cells
Average other
category		Misc
heightweight
males1.90.003
females1.70.002

Dumb terminal (hypothetical) will show something like this: 

                 A test table with merged cells
       /--------------------------------------------------\
       |          |      Average      |  other   |  Misc  |
       |          |-------------------| category |--------|
       |          |  height |  weight |          |        |
       |-----------------------------------------|--------|
       | males    | 1.9     | 0.003   |          |        |
       |-----------------------------------------|--------|
       | females  | 1.7     | 0.002   |          |        |
       \--------------------------------------------------/

Obviously, RFC called it dumb in rather methapysical sense, because here is what we've got from the real-life text-only browser Lynx6-2 (this is actual textscreen-shot): 

   CAPTION: A test table with merged cells

   Average other
   category Misc
   height weight
   males 1.9 0.003
   females 1.7 0.002

Smart Netscape Navigator show us this: 


                 A test table with merged cells
       /--------------------------------------------------\
       |          |      Average      |  other   |  Misc  |
       |          |-------------------| category |--------|
       |          |  height |  weight |          |        |
       |-----------------------------------------/        |
       | males    | 1.9     | 0.003   |                   |
       |-------------------------------                   |
       | females  | 1.7     | 0.002   |                   |
       \--------------------------------------------------/

Microsoft Internet Explorer faithfully imitating every Navigator flaw, displayed exactly the same picture.

Source: 


   <TABLE BORDER>
     <CAPTION>A test table with merged cells</CAPTION>
     <TR><TH ROWSPAN=2><TH COLSPAN=2>Average
         <TH ROWSPAN=2>other<BR>category<TH>Misc
     <TRgt;<TH>height<TH>weight
     <TRgt;<TH ALIGN=LEFT>males<TD>1.9<TD>0.003
     <TRgt;<TH ALIGN=LEFT ROWSPAN=2>females<TD>1.7<TD>0.002
   </TABLE>

Example number two (monstrous one)

CODE-PAGE SUPPORT IN MICROSOFT WINDOWS
Code-Page
ID 		Name ACP OEMCP Windows
NT 3.1 		Windows
NT 3.51 		Windows
95
1200Unicode (BMP of ISO 10646)XX*
1250Windows 3.1 Eastern EuropeanXXXX
1251Windows 3.1 CyrillicXXXX
1252Windows 3.1 US (ANSI)XXXX
1253Windows 3.1 GreekXXXX
1254Windows 3.1 TurkishXXXX
1255HebrewXX
1256ArabicXX
1257BalticXX
1361Korean (Johab)X**X
437MS-DOS United StatesXXXX
708Arabic (ASMO 708)XX
709Arabic (ASMO 449+, BCON V4)XX
710Arabic (Transparent Arabic)XX
720Arabic (Transparent ASMO)XX

How this table would be rendering on hypotetical dumb terminal: 

                     CODE-PAGE SUPPORT IN MICROSOFT WINDOWS
========================================================================
Code-Page| Name                      |ACP OEMCP| Windows Windows Windows
    ID   |                           |         |  NT 3.1 NT 3.51    95
------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1200  |Unicode (BMP of ISO 10646) |         |     X       X       *
   1250  |Windows 3.1 East. Europe   |  X      |     X       X       X
   1251  |Windows 3.1 Cyrillic       |  X      |     X       X       X
   1252  |Windows 3.1 US (ANSI)      |  X      |     X       X       X
   1253  |Windows 3.1 Greek          |  X      |     X       X       X
   1254  |Windows 3.1 Turkish        |  X      |     X       X       X
   1255  |Hebrew                     |  X      |                     X
   1256  |Arabic                     |  X      |                     X
   1257  |Baltic                     |  X      |                     X
   1361  |Korean (Johab)             |  X      |             **      X
------------------------------------------------------------------------
    437  |MS-DOS United States       |     X   |     X       X       X
    708  |Arabic (ASMO 708)          |     X   |                     X
    709  |Arabic (ASMO 449+, BCON V4)|     X   |                     X
    710  |Arabic (Transparent Arabic)|     X   |                     X
    720  |Arabic (Transparent ASMO)  |     X   |                     X
========================================================================

Internet Explorer faithfully rendered all rules and frame exactly as in the example above. Navigator does not support FRAME and RULES tag and table rather looked like extremely distorted honeycomb. 


   <table border=2 frame=hsides rules=groups>
   <caption>CODE-PAGE SUPPORT IN MICROSOFT WINDOWS</caption>
   <colgroup align=center>
   <colgroup align=left>
   <colgroup align=center span=2>
   <colgroup align=center span=3>
   <thead valign=top>
   <tr>
   <th>Code-Page<br>ID
   <th>Name
   <th>ACP
   <th>OEMCP
   <th>Windows<br>NT 3.1
   <th>Windows<br>NT 3.51
   <th>Windows<br>95
   <tbody>
   <tr><td>1200<td>Unicode (BMP of ISO 10646)<td><td><td>X<td>X<TD>*
   <tr><td>1250<td>Windows 3.1 Eastern European<td>X<td><td>X<td>X<TD>X
   <tr><td>1251<td>Windows 3.1 Cyrillic<td>X<td><td>X<td>X<TD>X
   <tr><td>1252<td>Windows 3.1 US (ANSI)<td>X<td><td>X<td>X<TD>X
   <tr><td>1253<td>Windows 3.1 Greek<td>X<td><td>X<td>X<TD>X
   <tr><td>1254<td>Windows 3.1 Turkish<td>X<td><td>X<td>X<TD>X
   <tr><td>1255<td>Hebrew<td>X<td><td><td><td>X
   <tr><td>1256<td>Arabic<td>X<td><td><td><td>X
   <tr><td>1257<td>Baltic<td>X<td><td><td><td>X
   <tr><td>1361<td>Korean (Johab)<td>X<td><td><td>**<td>X
   <tbody>
   <tr><td>437<td>MS-DOS United States<td><td>X<td>X<td>X<TD>X
   <tr><td>708<td>Arabic (ASMO 708)<td><td>X<td><td><td>X
   <tr><td>709<td>Arabic (ASMO 449+, BCON V4)<td><td>X<td><td><td>X
   <tr><td>710<td>Arabic (Transparent Arabic)<td><td>X<td><td><td>X
   <tr><td>720<td>Arabic (Transparent ASMO)<td><td>X<td><td><td>X
   </table>

Example number three (simple but sneaky)

We have got interesting multitude of opinions feeding this example to Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Basic setup:

123
4
56

Expected visual: 

       /-----------\
       | 1 | 2 | 3 |
       |   |-------|
       |   | 4 |   |
       |---|...|---|
       | 5 :   | 6 |
       \-----------/

Navigator visual: 

       /-----------\
       | 1 | 2 | 3 |
       |   |-------|
       |---|:::|---|
       | 5 : 4 | 6 |
       \-----------/

Internet Explorer visual: 

       /---------------\
       | 1 | 2 | 3 |   |
       |___|-------|---|
       |   : 4 | 5 | 6 |
       \---------------/

Source: 


       <table border>
           <tr><td rowspan=2>1<td>2<td>3
           <tr><td rowspan=2>4
           <tr><td colspan=2>5<td>6
       </table>

Tweaked for Navigator (to get initial visual):

123
4 
56

Tweaked source: 


       <table border>
           <tr><td rowspan=2>1<td>2<td>3
           <tr><td rowspan=2>4<td>&nbsp;
           <tr><td colspan=2>5<td>6
       </table>

Tweaked source caused deep disturbance within Internet Explorer renderer: 

       /-------------- \
       |   | 2 | 3 |   |
       | 1 |-------|   |
       |   | 4 |   |   |
       |---|...|---|---|
       |   :   | 5 | 6 |
       \---------------/

Cool, huh, huh.

COLGROUP suffering.

COLGROUP is one of the least widespread features of the Table RFC.

Our circuits were literally itching to try it out. We did. Here are the results. They various.

<COLGROUP>

We set up a simple test to verify that COLGROUP can (or maybe can not) set up width and alignment for the entire column without specifying it for separate cells. To prevent us getting correct result by accident, we stuffed some cells with fair amount of text.

a cell a cell nuthin here
colspan=2 nuthin again
and again

which looked something like this in Internet Explorer (in Navigator alignment for the last two columns was default, i.e. LEFT): 


     /------------------------------------------------------\
     |a cell  |a cell  |                  |     nuthin here |
     |----------------------------------------------------- |
     |colspan=2        |     nuthin again |                 |
     |----------------------------------------------------- |
     |                                    |       and again |
     \------------------------------------------------------/

Both Internet Explorer and Navigator ignored WIDTH attribute in the COLGROUP, but kept 60% overall table width intact. forst two columns were less than 50%, not talking about reuested 70%.

Explorer did notice ALIGN attribute for the second COLGROUP and applied it accordingly. Navigator gleefully ignored ALIGN in COLGROUP.

Even when RULES=ALL were specified, Internet Explorer failed to draw vertical rules for the empty cells in the third row. Navigator did not support RULES attribute.

Source code: 


<TABLE BORDER WIDTH="60%" RULES=ALL>
  <COLGROUP SPAN=2 WIDTH="70%"><COLGROUP SPAN=2 WIDTH="30%" ALIGN=RIGHT VALIGN=BOTTOM>
    <TR><TD>a cell <TD>a cell <TD><td>nuthin here
    <TR><TD COLSPAN=2>colspan=2 <TD>nuthin again
    <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>and again
</TABLE>

<COL>

We did very similar to the COLGROUP test for the COL tag. Results were exactly the same as for COLGROUP.

a cell nuthin here
nuthin again

The source: 


<TABLE BORDER WIDTH="60%" RULES=ALL COLS=2>
  <COL WIDTH="70%"><COL WIDTH="30%" ALIGN=RIGHT>
    <TR><TD>a cell <TD>nuthin here
    <TR><TD><TD>nuthin again
</TABLE>

[base][ground]