---Because it's the most common usage? At least, I tend to find it so.
--- |... | | <!ELEMENT (th|td) - O %body.content> | | We may be stuck with TH and TD, but I just want to point out the rich | possibilities for tag abuse. If I can put a table inside a table, | if I can distinguish THEAD and TFOOT from TBODY, if I can set up | rendering properties based on the number column, or the number and | class of row, I could probably set up proper table headings, footings, | and even table stubs without having two cell elements. As two | elements are provided, they'll be abused for presentation rather than | used with their apparently intended semantics. Be prepared, and too | bad for the print impaired!---I'm not sure I see what you're aiming at. In my mind TH is used for cells that are "part of the furniture" - fixed information that is meant to be part of the presentation of the table, rather than of the data contained in the table - and TD for "data" - variable stuff that is inserted into the table for display. That seems like a useful semantic distinction and separate from the THEAD/TBODY/TFOOT distinction that controls what parts of the table are supposed to be always visible.
While I agree that people might misuse the TH/TD distinction as a handy way of getting their different default presentations, are you suggesting we'd be better off doing without the ability to present the semantic distinction?
scott
-- scott preece motorola/mcg urbana design center 1101 e. university, urbana, il 61801 phone: 217-384-8589 fax: 217-384-8550 internet mail: preece@urbana.mcd.mot.com