Re: [docbook] CALS table attribute inheritance questions

[Max Starkenburg <maxwell@owlnet.rice.edu>]

> > Hello, I have some questions about inheritance issues for attributes in
> > CALS tables that aren't very clear to me from the spec I've been using
> > (http://www.oasis-open.org/specs/a502.htm) or other sources I have seen on
> > the 'net.  Let's say I have the following table:
> >
> > <table>
> >   <tgroup align="center" cols="3">
> >     <colspec colname="c1" colsep="0" />
> >     <colspec colname="c2" align="right" />
> >     <colspec colname="c3" align="right" />
> >     <tbody>
> >       <row rowsep="0">
> >         <entrytbl cols="2" colname="c1">
> >           <tbody>
> >             <row>
> >               <entry> A.1 </entry>
> >               <entry> A.2 </entry>
> >             </row>
> >             <row>
> >               <entry> A.3 </entry>
> >               <entry> A.4 </entry>
> >             </row>
> >           </tbody>
> >         </entrytbl>
> >         <entry colname="c2"> B </entry>
> >         <entry> C </entry>
> >       </row>
> >     </tbody>
> >   </tgroup>
> > </table>
> >
> > My first question is whether the "A.x" entries should inherit the
> > rowsep="0" (from their common <row> ancestor), the colsep="0" (from the
> > <colspec> referenced in the <entrytbl>), and the align="center" (from
> > their <tgroup> ancestor)? In other words, do such attributes "reset" at
> > the <entrytbl> level, or do they continue being inherited all the way up?
> > If they "reset", would the "A.x" entries inherit any attributes defined in
> > <table>?
>
> The answer is no, according to the CALS table spec at
> http://www.oasis-open.org/specs/a502.htm
>
> "Within an <entrytbl>, inheritance for an <entry> is from <entrytbl> (or its
> <thead> if the <entry> is also in it) instead of <tgroup>, and cannot be
> from <thead> or <tfoot> of that <tgroup>."

Thanks very much for your answer, though I'm not completely sure if that
"no" was for all my instances (since the text you quoted from the spec
doesn't explicitly mention <row>, <colspec>, or <table>).  Just to confirm
things, can I correctly assume that in a table like this:

<table colsep="0">
  <tgroup cols="2">
    <colspec colnum="1" colname="c1" align="justify" />
    <tbody>
      <row>
        <entrytbl cols="2" colname="c1" rowsep="0">
	  <tbody>
	    <row>
	      <entry>A.1</entry><entry>A.2</entry>
	    <row>
	    <row>
	      <entry>A.3</entry><entry>A.4</entry>
	    <row>
	  </tbody>
	</entrytbl>
	<entry>B</entry>
      </row>
    </tbody>
  </tgroup>
</table>

.. that the A.X entries should inherit rowsep="0" from <entrybl> and
colsep="0" from <table>, but not align="justify" from the <colspec>
referenced in <entrytbl>?


> > My second question is whether the content in the "C" <entry> aligns to the
> > right, as defined by the third <colspec>, even though its <entry> doesn't
> > specifically reference the third <colspec> via a colname attribute (as was
> > done in the "B" <entry> with the second <colspec>)?
>
> Yes, it should align right.  The 3rd colspec applies to entry elements in
> that column even if it is not referred to by name.

Thanks for confirming this.  I wasn't sure because the spec does say that
"colspec cannot be referenced without colname", but most examples I've
seen that use <colspec>s don't always reference them colname attributes in
their <entry>s.

Max