For the edge condition where the heading+footing don't fit on the display,
I would propose that they be anchored on display 'panels' adjacent to
the table data. It might be useful to have a table attribute for a
preferred minimum number of rows in one display panel. Perhaps resulting
in an automatic switch to a smaller font. From a printing of tables
perspective, I think it would be sufficient if browsers provided a
standard alteration to the caption to show 'part X of Y'. Simply repeat
headings and captions on each page. I believe very strongly in improving
the printability of HTML but compared with other issues, the effort
to provide unique continuation headings would be better spent elsewhere.
PS. This topic relates to the bottom of page 14 of the Dec 2 draft
distributed at the IETF meeting.
Dave Morris