Ernest Cline wrote:

> Example 7
> <!-- An XHTMLish table -->
> <table>
>   <tr><th>1</td><th>2</th><th>3</th></tr>
>   <tr><th>4</td><td id="a">5<br />8</td><td>6</td></tr>
>   <tr><th>7</td><tc tref="a" /><td>9</td></tr>
> </table>
> 
> The <tc> element would take but a single attribute tref of type IDREF...

   Ignoring your errors above (and in most of your other examples), such 
as where you wrote "<th>1</td>", This is a reasonable idea, but it may 
need some improving.

Question 1.
   To write the equivalent of rowspan="3" (or colspan) would you just 
add additional <tc/> elements with the same tref value?
eg.
<table>
   <tr><th>1</td><th>2</th><th>3</th></tr>
   <tr><th>4</td><td id="a">5<br />8</td><td>6</td></tr>
   <tr><th>7</td><tc tref="a" /><td>9</td></tr>
   <tr><th>10</td><tc tref="a" /><td>12</td></tr>
</table>

Question 2.
   What would happen if an author used a <tc/> element with a reference 
to a non-adjacent cell? like this:
<table>
   <tr><td id="a">1</td><td>2</td><tc tref="a"/></tr>
</table>

CYA
...Lachy!