lynx-dev HTML.c and table alignment (2.8.2dev.25)

[Karl Eichwalder]

lynx tries to honor the align attribute for TABLE elements.  This does
more harm than good, since every single rows will be centered, too.  For
centering the whole table there isn't enough space in most cases.
Example (from http://www.python.org/doc/howto/regex/contents.html,
produced by latex2html, slightly trimmed by me):

<table border align=center>
  <tr><th><b>Method/Attribute</b></th>
      <th align=left><b>Purpose</b></th>
  <tr><td align=center><code>match</code></td>
      <td>Determine if the RE matches at the beginning of
  the string.</td>
  <tr><td align=center><code>search</code></td>
      <td>Scan through a string, looking for any location
  where this RE matches.</td>
  <tr><td align=center><code>split</code></td>
      <td>Split the string into a list, splitting it wherever the RE
  matches</td>
</table>

This code will be displayed as:

                          Method/Attribute Purpose
                          ------------------------
     match Determine if the RE matches at the beginning of the string.
    search Scan through a string, looking for any location where this RE
                                  matches.
      split Split the string into a list, splitting it wherever the RE
                                  matches

Removing the align checks (patch appended), makes it look this way:

   Method/Attribute Purpose
   ------------------------
   match Determine if the RE matches at the beginning of the string.
   search Scan through a string, looking for any location where this RE
   matches.
   split Split the string into a list, splitting it wherever the RE
   matches

Ideally, these simple tables should be displayed like a list (for
clarity you should repeat the table header entries for every row):

   Method/Attribute
       match
   Purpose
       Determine if the RE matches at the beginning of the string.
   Method/Attribute
       search
   Purpose
       Scan through a string, looking for any location where this RE
       matches.
   Method/Attribute
       split
   Purpose
       Split the string into a list, splitting it wherever the RE
       matches

At least, it would be nice to have such a listing as an alternative
(sorry, I'm not able to offer a patch).

--- lynx2-8-2/src/HTML.c        Sat May  1 19:38:40 1999
@@ -5352,7 +5352,7 @@
            "HTML: ****** Maximum nesting of %d divisions/tables exceeded!\n",
                    MAX_NESTING);
        }
-       if (present && present[HTML_TABLE_ALIGN] &&
+       /* if (present && present[HTML_TABLE_ALIGN] &&
            value[HTML_TABLE_ALIGN] && *value[HTML_TABLE_ALIGN]) {
            if (!strcasecomp(value[HTML_TABLE_ALIGN], "center")) {
                me->DivisionAlignments[me->Division_Level] = HT_CENTER;
@@ -5376,6 +5376,7 @@
            UPDATE_STYLE;
            me->current_default_alignment = styles[HTML_DLEFT]->alignment;
        }
+        */
        CHECK_ID(HTML_TABLE_ID);
        break;
 

-- 
Karl Eichwalder