On Tue, 6 Sep 2005, Borris wrote:
David Dorward wrote: agents for which a table based layout is worse then sensible markup.
When do tables display worse than "sensible" markup?
Try viewing some sites with tables using Lynx especially those
that include <br> in the table cells and center the text.
A Preformatted version of a table:
Features supported by different versions:
Description Versions
Feature 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.5
Cut and paste N N N N N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Colour highlighting N N N N N N N N N Y N Y Y
Etc., etc.
A table with centered data in all but the leftmost column and a <br> after
every cell content for spacing as rendered by Lynx:
Features supported by different versions:
Description Versions
Feature
1.0
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
2.0
2.1
2.2
2.3
3.0
3.1
3.2
3.5
Cut and paste
N
N
N
N
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Colour highlighting
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
Y
N
Y
Y
Etc., etc.
Then there are the tables that do display horizontally (no "<br>") but
use 'Y' for supported features and an empty cell for unsupported so Lynx
displays something like this:
Features supported by different versions:
Description Versions
Feature 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.5
Cut and paste Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Colour highlighting Y Y Y
Etc., etc.
Sensible markup would list the versions supporting each feature:
Features supported by different versions:
Feature: Versions Supporting it
Cut and paste: Versions 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.5
Colour highlighting: Versions 3.0, 3.2, 3.5
Etc., etc.
Which would degrade in Lynx to the following understandable output:
Features supported by different versions:
Feature: Versions Supporting it
Cut and paste: Versions 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.5
Colour highlighting: Versions 3.0, 3.2, 3.5
Etc., etc.
To simulate Lynx rendering of a table:
1. Take a table,
2. Change each <table...>...</table> to <p>...</p>
3. Change each </tr><tr...> to <br>
4. Delete the unchanged <tr...> and </tr> at the start and ends of the
table.
5. Change each <td...> and </td> to a space (not an but an
ordinary space subject to whitespace compression).
Now view it and see what you get.
Or...
Lynx has been ported to Windows. Grab a copy from here:
http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/lynxport.htm
It will also help to give you an idea of how your content is
"seen" by search-engines or by the blind using screen-readers
and speech-synthesizers.
--
``Why don't you find a more appropiate newsgroup to post this tripe into?
This is a meeting place for a totally differnt kind of "vision impairment".
Catch my drift?'' -- "jim" in alt.disability.blind.social regarding an
off-topic religious/political post, March 28, 2005