[whatwg] several messages

[Ian Hickson]

On Tue, 18 Mar 2008, Christoph Päper wrote:
> >
> > +  <h4>Attributes common to <code>td</code> and <code>th</code>
> > elements</h4>
> > 
> > +  <p>The <code>td</code> and <code>th</code> elements may have a <dfn
> > +  title="attr-tdth-colspan"><code>colspan</code></dfn> content
> > +  attribute specified, whose value must be a <span>valid non-negative
> > +  integer</span> greater than zero.
> 
> Isn't that the description of a valid positive integer? If that term is 
> not used or defined yet, why not?

Because "positive" is confusing to people. Some people (including me) 
think that 0 is positive.

> > +  <p>The <code>td</code> and <code>th</code> elements may also have a
> > +  <dfn title="attr-tdth-rowspan"><code>rowspan</code></dfn> content
> > +  attribute specified, whose value must be a <span>valid non-negative
> > +  integer</span>.
> 
> Why can |rowspan|, unlike |colspan|, be 0, but is then also normalised to 1?

It's not normalised to 1, is it? I don't understand.


On Wed, 19 Mar 2008, Michael Enright wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 2:23 PM, Christoph Päper
> <christoph.paeper at crissov.de> wrote:
> > > +  <h4>Attributes common to <code>td</code> and <code>th</code>
> >  > elements</h4>
> >  >
> >  > +  <p>The <code>td</code> and <code>th</code> elements may have a <dfn
> >  > +  title="attr-tdth-colspan"><code>colspan</code></dfn> content
> >  > +  attribute specified, whose value must be a <span>valid non-negative
> >  > +  integer</span> greater than zero.
> >
> >  Isn't that the description of a valid positive integer? If that term
> >  is not used or defined yet, why not?
> 
> The mathematical definitions of positive and negative integers exclude 
> zero, but the less-expert reader might not realize that zero is not 
> valid for colspan unless it is made explicit. "integer greater than 
> zero" would be one way to say it. Otherwise "positive non-zero integer"?

I think the current text is fine.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'