title: Differential AJAX updates for HTML table?
body: <p>I have a game that's based on a 25x20 HTML table (the game board). Every 3 seconds the user can "move," which sends an AJAX request to the server, at which time the server rerenders the entire HTML table and sends it to the user.</p>
  
  <p>This was easy to write, but it wastes a lot of bandwidth. Are there any libraries, client (preferably jquery) or server-side, that help send differential instead of full updates for large tables? Usually only 5-10 tiles change on a given reload, so I feel like I could cut bandwidth use by an order of magnitude by sending just those tiles instead of all 500 every 3 seconds.</p>
  
  <p>I'm also open to "you idiot, why are you using HTML tables"-type comments if you can suggest a better alternative. For example are there any CSS/DOM manipulation techniques I should be considering instead of using an HTML table? Should I use a table but give each td coordinates for an id (like "12x08") and then use jquery to replace cells by id?</p>
  
  <p>A clarification: the tiles are text, not images.</p>