Jens Meiert wrote:
> After having revised the XHTML 2 WD another time, I again wondered about the
> use of the <th /> element -- wouldn't it be simply enough to use the <thead
> /> element instead surrounding the corresponding table cells, which offers
> enough possibilities to highlight and format the table head (via CSS)?

Consider the rough example:

<table>
	<tr>
		<th scope="row">Title:</th>
		<td>President</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<th scope="row">Name:</th>
		<td>Joe Smith</td>
	</tr>
</table>

And explain to me how you could do the same using the <thead> element.

> 
> I'm sorry but I obviously don't understand the need for that element, thus
> it seems quite unnecessary for me and (in the moment) I think it would be a
> more generic solution to abstain from it. Can you please give me some details
> (to be more constructive in this case and to get rid of my ignorance ;)?

It is necessary to give semantical meaning to a cell which provides 
header information only. The <td> can be used to hold header information 
if it uses the scope attribute, but only if it contains information as 
well, while the <th> element should only contain header information. 
Consider:

<table>
	<tr>
		<th scope="row">Title:</th>
		<td scope="col">President</td>
		<td scope="col">Secretary</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<th scope="row">Name:</th>
		<td>Joe Smith</td>
		<td>Jane Jackson</td>
	</tr>
</table>

Certainly there are better ways this data could be organized, but I hope 
you see the point I'm trying to make.


- Andy