Empty tbl line in -Thtml rendered as <tr></tr>, which is universally 0-sized

Empty tbl line in -Thtml rendered as <tr></tr>, which is universally 0-sized

[наб]

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Hi!

Given:
-- >8 --
.Dd
.Dt STTY 1
.Os
.
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.TS
lb lb .
a	b
c	d

e	f
.TE
-- >8 --

groff (nroff and -Tpdf) and mandoc -Tutf8 agree that this means the
third line is blank:
-- >8 --
STTY(1)                     General Commands Manual                    STTY(1)

D\bDE\bES\bSC\bCR\bRI\bIP\bPT\bTI\bIO\bON\bN
     a\ba   b\bb
     c\bc   d\bd

     e\be   f\bf

Linux 5.10.0-17-amd64                                    Linux 5.10.0-17-amd64
-- >8 --

However, mandoc -Thtml (current HEAD, Debian 1.14.5-1 matches) generates:
-- >8 --
<table class="tbl">
  <tr>
    <td><b>a</b></td>
    <td><b>b</b></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td><b>c</b></td>
    <td><b>d</b></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td><b>e</b></td>
    <td><b>f</b></td>
  </tr>
</table>
-- >8 --

Which browsers universally (lynx, Firefox) render as 0-sized,
which yields, effectively, a three-row table.

Adding a \& yields a <tr><td></td></td> (with a <b></b> in this case),
which is better at 1+1px padding from the td,
but also isn't an empty line, and lynx renders it identically.

Having a \ \& does work, I guess, but it injects a space and is a pretty
stinky work-around.

Best,
наб

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