----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jens Meiert" <jens.meiert@erde3.com>
To: "Chris Ridpath" <chris.ridpath@utoronto.ca>; <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Cc: <www-html@w3.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 3:21 AM
Subject: RE: [#293] Summary for tables


>
> > Using "class" may not be perfect but it will be used very infrequently
(I
> > guess) and defining this CSS class should not cause much hindrance to
the
> > author.
>
>
> The idea sounds great, but I rather suggest a 'type' attribute for tables
> (which really expresses the way it is used), like
>
>    <table type="layout" />
>
> thus implying e.g. an optional 'data' value. This is obviously no CSS
> matter, and so there is no need for use of the class attribute, and the
proposed
> type attribute would clearly make a difference between tables used either
for
> layout or data -- solving an important Accessibility problem.
>
> By the way, if this attribute would be introduced you could pass on
caption
> or th elements (in layout tables), according to a real simplification (I
am
> no friend of these elements, either).
>

I've think also about this option but this must be approved by the XHTML
Working Group and/or how could it be applied to the older version (HTML 4.x)
?