[eLyXer-users] Some XHTML help with tables

[Alex Fernandez]

Hi, list,

I want to make a request and then ask you an open question.

Thanks to Olivier Ripoll (who brought to my attention a validation
problem with the LyX CSS) I have found a couple of XHTML validation
issues. The first one with the main page was quite easy: just
upgrading the .lyx document to 1.6.x solved it. But the next one is
quite more insidious. You can see it in the Math Showcase:
  http://www.nongnu.org/elyxer/math.html
It does not validate because of a couple of issues:
  
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nongnu.org%2Felyxer%2Fmath.html&charset=(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&ss=1&group=0&user-agent=W3C_Validator%2F1.654
Both are due to a <table> element inside a <span class="formula"> element:
  An inline array <span class="formula"><span
class="symbol">[</span><table class="formula">
  [...]

The LyX document contains an array in an inlined formula; the inlined
formula is converted to <span class="formula">, while the array
results in a <table class="formula">. The thing is: the span is
correct for an inlined element, so that it flows with the text; and
the table is also right (although the CSS for that is:
  table.formula {
    display: inline-block;
    [...]
  }
to make it flow with the text). I might use a <div
class="inlined-formula"> instead and then change its display type in
the CSS also, but it seems like a hack. Another (even uglier) hack
would be to use elements other than a <table> for the array, and then
format that like a table; but it's messy.

What would you do? Anyone that knows his/her XHTML want to give it a try?

Finally, I will ask an open question to the list to gauge the
magnitude of the problem: how important is XHTML validation for you?
Up to now validation has been a hard requirement for eLyXer, but I am
thinking about relaxing it a bit for this particular case.

Alex.