35945 - nested table percent height is not calculated correctly

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

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

Description

[Stefano J. Attardi]

The percent height of a nested table is calculated incorrectly when the 
containing cell height is determined automatically.
For instance, if the containing cell height value isn't set, the inner table's 
percent height value is ignored.
Instead, if the containing cell height value is set, such value is used to 
calculate the inner table height, regardless of the cell actual height.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Goto http://www.sja.za.net/design/mozilla/testcase1.html and 
http://www.sja.za.net/design/mozilla/testcase2.html or download attached 
testcase files;
2. In both pages is a main table with two cells: the first one determines the 
height of the main table, the second one contains the nested table that should 
be 100% high.

Actual Results:  Inner table does not fill the whole cell vertically.

Expected Results:  Inner table should adjust to the actual height of the cell.

Platforms & Build Found on:
- Win2000 2000040908

Additional Info: Renders even worse in 4.x, correctly in IE 5.0.

Comment 1

[Stefano J. Attardi]

Attachment: testcase with main table height not specified

Comment 2

[Stefano J. Attardi]

Attachment: testcase with main table height specified

Comment 3

[David Hallowell]

http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/tables.html#edef-TABLE
It doesn't look like an attribute for HEIGHT is in the HTML 4 spec for the TABLE
tag and as we're being encouraged to use stylesheets for layout rather than
tables I guess that we'll never see a height attribute for this tag in the HTML
spec.

As it's not really a bug I'll have to mark it invalid. As Mozilla is aiming to
be standards compliant I can't see this being supported. Backwards compatibility
with older web browsers may seem like a good idea but it just encourages
non-standard coding styles. Anyway as Netscape has never supported the HEIGHT
attribute then most web pages on the net won't be affected as they try to code
to suit IE and Navigator.

I'm afraid this has to be INVALID because this is not a bug this is the expected
behaviour (ignoring unrecognised tags)

Comment 4

[Sean Richardson]

Actually, it appears that the HEIGHT attribute largely does work for tables,
although it does not appear in the HTML 4 spec:
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/tables.html#h-11.2.1

Two things appear not to work:
1. Using a % height value when the outer table has no fixed height.
2. Using a % height value when the outer table hight is specified in pixels.

Using a % height value when the outer table's height is also specified in %
does work: see http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/showattachment.cgi?attach_id=3127 
-- attached to bug 19526, '"HEIGHT" option in <TABLE>'.

A note: mixing % and fixed size values in tables is usually not recommended.

Comment 5

[Stefano J. Attardi]

This is not an HTML problem. This is a rendering bug. You could do the same 
thing with Style Sheets and you'd get the same result. Attaching testcase with 
CSS.

Also, if you want to strichtly stick to the HTML 4 spec for the TABLE tag, the 
HEIGHT attribute should always be ignored. Instead, it is *never* ignored apart 
from the first testcase. And it doesn't seem that Mozilla's behaviour when this 
attribute is present should not be fixed: see bug #32205 (very similar to this 
one, has not been invalidated).

Comment 6

[Stefano J. Attardi]

Attachment: testcase with CSS (main table height not specified)

Comment 7

[Stefano J. Attardi]

Attachment: testcase with CSS (main table height specified)

Comment 8

[Christine Hoffman]

Adding 'verifyme' keyword

Comment 9

[Christine Hoffman]

Verified invalid for regarding height attribute on TABLE. There are valid issues 
with CSS height style on the TABLE element.