Firefox/gecko tables formatting bug...or clueless coder?

[thatseattleguy]

I'm stumped. Visit:

http://positivesweat.com/class.html

....and look at the tables in the middle labeled "morning" and
"evening". Do this in both IE and Firefox.

The tables appear to me to be defined identically (to take up 100% of
the width of the parent table), and indeed IE makes them the same
width, as I wanted and expected. But in Firefox (latest), the "evening"
table is appreciably narrower. Seemingly regardless of the text
contents of each cell.

Am I missing something subtle here or is this a Firefox/Gecko bug?

Thoughts on what's causing this, and on any non-kludgey workarounds,
much appreciated.

cheers /jonster/

[David Ross]

th************@hotmail.com wrote:

I'm stumped. Visit:

http://positivesweat.com/class.html

...and look at the tables in the middle labeled "morning" and
"evening". Do this in both IE and Firefox.

The tables appear to me to be defined identically (to take up 100% of
the width of the parent table), and indeed IE makes them the same
width, as I wanted and expected. But in Firefox (latest), the "evening"
table is appreciably narrower. Seemingly regardless of the text
contents of each cell.

Am I missing something subtle here or is this a Firefox/Gecko bug?

Thoughts on what's causing this, and on any non-kludgey workarounds,
much appreciated.

cheers /jonster/

First of all, there are 67 HTML errors, some of which involve
tables.

Then, you seem to be using a table to force margins, which should
instead be done with style-sheets. A style-sheet would simplify
your HTML by eliminating nested tables.

Finally, your MORNINGS and EVENINGS tables have no width
specified. As long as the specified ratios of column widths
(indicated as percentages in the <TD> tags) are maintained, these
two tables will have the minimum necessary width to hold their
text. Try adding width="100%" to the two <table> tags.

Even better, fix all the HTML errors and eliminate nested tables.

--

David E. Ross
<URL:http://www.rossde.com/>

I use Mozilla as my Web browser because I want a browser that
complies with Web standards. See <URL:http://www.mozilla.org/>.

[thatseattleguy]

David:

your MORNINGS and EVENINGS tables have no width
specified. As long as the specified ratios of column widths
(indicated as percentages in the <TD> tags) are maintained, these
two tables will have the minimum necessary width to hold their
text. Try adding width="100%" to the two <table> tags.

I'll try that; thanks. Still interesting to me that IE and Firefox
render it differently, though.

BTW: The whole site is something I inherited (it's NOT my html) and
it's in dire need of a rethink/rewrite from the ground up. At that
point of course stylesheets would be the way to go, but I'm not about
to throw time and energy into the current version...

-jon-

[Hans-Joachim Zierke]

th************@hotmail.com schrieb:

I'll try that; thanks. Still interesting to me that IE and Firefox
render it differently, though.

With HTML errors, you can have all kinds of rendering. Especially
Firefox and other Gecko browers) are prone to that.

If I get a really funny display, I put the page through the validator,
and with a chance of 99%, there will be an error in that page, sometimes
not at the same place, where the funny display occurs.

I don't blame the programmers - as they say: Garbage in, garbage out.
Hans-Joachim

--
Debian will contain the most up-to-date of everything.

Ian A Murdock Mon, 16 Aug 1993 13:05:37 GMT

[Harlan Messinger]

th************@hotmail.com wrote:

I'll try that; thanks. Still interesting to me that IE and Firefox
render it differently, though.

They're different programs written by different teams with different
ways of interpreting the specification, and differing levels of respect
for the specification. It would be remarkable if they rendered
everything in exactly the same way.

[Harlan Messinger]

Harlan Messinger wrote:

th************@hotmail.com wrote:

I'll try that; thanks. Still interesting to me that IE and Firefox
render it differently, though.

They're different programs written by different teams with different
ways of interpreting the specification, and differing levels of respect
for the specification. It would be remarkable if they rendered
everything in exactly the same way.

Oh, and that's even when the code is correct. When it isn't, it would be
a miracle for different browsers to have the same rendering.