30981 - Backgrounds don't work on columns

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Core :: Layout: Tables, defect, P3)

Description

[Matthew Brealey]

Backgrounds should work on columns, but currently do not. See CSS2:
The following properties apply to column and column-group elements: 

'background' 
     The background properties set the background for cells in the column, but 
only if both the cell and row have transparent backgrounds. See "Table layers 
and transparency."

See the specified URL for a demonstration.

Comment 1

[troy]

Changing component

Comment 2

[Doron Rosenberg (IBM)]

reporter - where exactly do you see the bug? And is this a css bug or a table bug?

thanks

Comment 3

[Bernd Mielke]

Attachment: Testcase

Comment 4

[Bernd Mielke]

The col tag does not have a bgcolor attribute explicitely listed in the HTML
4.01 specification (while td and tr do), so the only way is a CSS access a shown
in the testcase. Due to the similarity to bug 915, I would recommend to assign
the bug to Attinasi

Comment 5

[Doron Rosenberg (IBM)]

ok, cc:attinasi. Attinasi - Is this a dupe of 915 or a valid new bug that
depends on 915 getting fixed (currently marked post-pr2)

Comment 6

[karnaze (gone)]

Backgrounds do work on columns in Standard mode (strict DTD). Marking invalid.

Comment 7

[Matthew Brealey]

That's no justification. It's still a bug. The specification does not say 'if 
your old browser didn't support it, then it's ok for your new one not to support 
it either'. Quirk mode bugs IMHO should be limited to those necessary for 
backwards compatibility, and should never extend to not supporting a feature.

Comment 8

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

VERIFIED that it works in standard mode. The testcase attached is actually
invalid (the DOCTYPE is in lower case) and in that case we are compatible with
Navigator 4 as per the requirements of Quirks mode.

We do not have the development cycles available to be making unnecessary changes
to quirks mode at this stage. If people want standards compliance, then they
should stick to the latest standards and where it'll work fine.

Comment 9

[Matthew Brealey]

> If people want standards compliance, then they should stick to the latest > 
standards

An interesting viewpoint. But wholly irrelevant. 

The latest standard is 4.01; pages that trigger bug mode can be 4.01-compliant

Comment 10

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

Excuse me, I was talking a bit loosely there. What I should have said was:

  If people want standards compliance, then they should use the latest, 
  recommended specifications. i.e., HTML 4.01 STRICT. Not Transitional.

Have you any idea how many pages marked Transitional _depend_ on the stupid
bugs that we are having to reproduce in Quirks mode? It's a huge number! If
we tried making Mozilla follow standards even for Transitional documents, then
users would think we were broken because we were not rendering pages as the
market leader does.

However, if you are willing to provide the time to `fix' this bug, go through
the top100 sites checking that they still render ok, and then submitting your
patch to be reviewed and checked in, then I'm sure we'll accept your work with
open arms.