h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i thought you may be able to answer my enquiry
i want to produce a table about 1000 cells by 1000 cells 1x1 cell size in which i can choose the colour of each cell any ideas ?

It's possible to use tables in this way to create images. However, a 1000 x 1000 table would be too big - each time the page in which it appeared was opened, the load on the servers would be too great.

A1033426 shows a smaller table that SEF created for the same purpose - <./>test1033426</.> shows the type of code that you'll need to use. SEF has a program that you might be able to use (with permission) to create similar tables.

RhoMuNuQ

THANKS VERY MUCH

No problem!

RhoMuNuQ

By the way, are you sure you want the RhoMuNuQ picture on your personal space? It says RhoMuNuQ on it in big letters!

RhoMuNuQ

Eh - Rho - I can't see any table on the page you referred to - is it one of those things that only work in IE?

Because if it is, then I know a way around it that I found out trying to make tables Netscape safe... Oh - and I'm not using Netscape myself, but Opera...

I know that it works in IE, and I know that it doesn't work in very old versions of Netscape. I don't have any other working browsers just now to test out, though.

How did you manage to make the tables Netscape-friendly?

RhoMuNuQ

Exactly how much are you willing to pay me?

Naaah... just kidding... a lot of hard work, I'm afraid...

...see, the trouble with some browsers is that they can't 'see' empty data cells in a table, so you have to fill them with something - something that doesn't show - tricky, eh?

Now, if it were your own private website, you'd just insert an empty gif - and what did we get when the Brunel skin was introduced?

You would have to insert the gif into every single data cell - told you it's a lot of work... you can see an example of it here: A676910

(I don't know what the id="blip" stands for in the GuideML though, it came with Twinkle's smiley table generator)

Thanks!

I'll fiddle with the table at some point and see if I can make it work on more browsers.


RhoMuNuQ

There are tiny.gif files all over the skin definitions. It does make the code bigger though and the BBC do keep saying they only officially support IE.

I told someone else that the id=blip thing is unnecessary. It is supposed to be uniquely defined for a tag within a document anyway. The idea is that you can refer to it later, eg with javascript.

Ah - thanks SEF - yet another new thing learnt!

I've used HEIGHT="1" together with the empty-looking gif - would there be a way to make it even smaller?

That's a white transparent GIF to you.

HEIGHT="1" is the smallest you can have, ie 1 pixel. You are up against the 72 dpi definition for pixel size (though it can actually vary a bit with monitors).

*settles down more comfortably*

Oh joy - a who know doubt will be all too happy to explain things to a computer-illiterate like me!

Eh - what's dpi?

*ready with pen and paper*

Don't tell me it means 1 pixel is made out of 72 what-nots?

Are you sure you want to know?

dpi = Dots Per Inch

The GIF standard specifies that they be displayed at 72 dpi. Other file formats don't care or are even printer specific. As a result of the 72 thing an internet page with GIF images will be displayed in big blocky form on a printer even if that printer has a higher dpi (better quality resolution). My printer has a 300 dpi setting (among others). 72 doesn't divide exactly into 300. So some "pixels" are shown as bigger than others (mostly 4 printer pixels but with every 6th one as 5 pixels). Is that geeky enough yet?

*feels something over her head*

Eh - did we have to get printers involved in this too? Eh - so how many inches is one pixel? *starting to feel rather silly - in fact, even sillier than usual*

No a pixel is a device-dependant unit. People usually assume monitors to be 72 dpi (although I have seen 75 , and my monitor actually is 95x96dpi), which is quite convient for a measure like the postscript point which is defined to be 72 points per inch, now if only more people used something cool like display postscript (or svg icons) people with big monitors would have better resolution not just more desktop space.

spelugx

*busy taking notes hoping that she will understand them one day when she's not quite as tired*

Well I did ask if you were sure you wanted to know.

If there are 72 dots/pixels per inch then each dot or pixel is 1/72 nd of an inch. However, monitors differ. So it is only an approximate or pretend size.

Hmmm... *scratches head* ...so... is the 72 the height or the width of a monitor?

No and neither. A monitor or TV is usually measured diagonally in inches.

The 72 dots per inch is supposed to mean that if you measured out an inch on your screen there should be 72 pixels along that inch. This can be done horizontally or vertically though these are sometimes different as spelugx said. That brings me to the aspect ratio - something else you probably don't want to know.

By the way, using the smallest URL I could find to an invisible BBC gif, I've updated my picture on A1086329 so that it should be visible in opera or whatever. However, it nearly doubles the size of the code.