Last modified: 2013-03-10 21:34:23 UTC
I propose to automatically add the scope-attribute to <th>-elements. This is usefull for non-graphical user clients, and also helps to a more semantic html. There was a request on de.wikipedia to add the attribute to infoboxes, which are often build like this: <tr> <th> Description </th> <td> Value </td> </tr>... I guess an algorithm like this: The scope-attribute is appended to <th> when * there is no wikitext-defined attribute (allows overwriting) * the <th> is the first element in its row and when its the single <th> * when it has a rowspan-attribute it gets "rowgroup" * else it gets "row" * there are only <th>s in this row * when it has a colspan-attribute it gets "colgroup" * else it gets "col" * when its the first in its row we might check the row below? When there's also a <th> in the beginning we should set no scope-attribute. The best would be checking at which "coordinates" the first <td> appears, so everything left /or/ above could get a appropriate row/col-scope, everything left /and/ above should get nothing. This would work with headers grouped by cells a second row/column, too, but it's not easy to implement. And we might have to watch for rtl-tables :-)
The scope attribute has a default value of “auto,” which responds to the table processing model in a predictable way. This proposal would replace that with a new, unpredictable default behaviour, and require us to add scope="auto" to restore normal behaviour. The normal behaviour of th scope is complex enough, without having to learn another way it works in wiki tables, based on a far less detailed spec than the relevant part of HTML5. I would prefer the scope attribute in wikis to work the same way it does in all other web pages. Reference: http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/tabular-data.html#the-th-element http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/tabular-data.html#header-and-data-cell-semantics
