Semantic mark-up --> tables for tabular data. On Dec 5, 2011 7:29 AM, <wsg@webstandardsgroup.org> wrote:
> ********************************************************************* > WEB STANDARDS GROUP MAIL LIST DIGEST > ********************************************************************* > > > From: David McKinnon <david...@mac.com> > Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:22:11 +1100 > Subject: Divs for tabular data > > OK, so I'm working on a project in which the developers are laying out > tabular data using divs. > The site is using the 960 CSS grid system so making the 'tables' work just > means applying the appropriate class to align each div/table cell to the > grid. > They say this is good because: > It's fast > They can manipulate the resulting DOM much more easily than they could > with a table > Developers find it easier to, say, add or remove columns from the tables, > without having to edit the code all the way down the table (no wysiwyg > editors here!) > To me this doesn't seem very good because: > It's not very semantic (although they've used micro data in the class > names for some divs) > It doesn't seem very accessible -- I might be wrong about this, but to me > good semantics is foundational to accessibility > There's a lot of markup -- I know tables aren't exactly light on code, but > they seem quite light and efficient in comparison > It doesn't seem to me like the code will be very easy to maintain for > anyone but the developers. > > The lead developers assure me that this is good practice for speed and > efficiency, but I'm not convinced. > Nevertheless, I don't want to be advocating tables as best practice if > they aren't. > > What do you think? Are tables too hard for the real world in large sites > or web apps where large amounts of DOM manipulation is required? Or have > these guys taken the 'Tables are bad' thing a bit too far? > > Kind regards, > David > > > > ************************************************************** > Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm > Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm > Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org > ************************************************************** > > > ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org *******************************************************************
