Tabular Forms Idea (14^th April 2008)

(Followup to the Tables with form fields: am I crazy? topic and my previous blog entry.)

An idea for detecting and handling tabular forms:

If there is a <th>, scope or headers:
1. Apply the table header association algorithm.
2. If there is a form control:
  1. Get the control labels from the headers for that cell.
  2. If there is a <label>:
    1. Add to the control labels using the <label> association algorithm.
Otherwise:
1. If there is a form control:
  1. If there is a <label>:
    1. Get the control labels using the <label> association algorithm.
  2. Otherwise:
    1. Get the control labels using the absent <label> heuristics.
End.

Or just say:

<label> association works the same inside and outside of <table> elements.
The headers of a table cell apply to all its descendants, like title.