From: Bill Brown <macnim...@gmail.com>
I, too, am surprised that there are still such strong feelings toward
maintaining tables for layout.
>As a boy, my father had this pair of channel lock pliers that he used
>for everything.
>He used the pliers because he always knew where they were, not because
>they were the right tool for the job. Sometimes, I get the sense that
>people are using tables for layout are a lot like my dad used his pliers
>-- they know where the tables are.
In my opinion you've written a very good analogy, Bill, and I'm sure that no
one "from the outside" could tell that a nail had been reset by a pair of
pliers instead of a hammer.
>CSS requires a change in thought process, a re-envisioning of a website
>from a different perspective.
Exactly, at least for those who learned to create web pages without the
benefits of CSS.
>If you haven't been able to get your head
>around the benefits of CSS, I don't think you'll ever understand the
>syntax and basic guidelines behind its usage, particularly with regard
>to positioning.
Many of us, perhaps most, resist change, at least at the beginning. For someone
who has been using channel-lock pliers to put his or her websites together,
using a variety of tools instead of just the one is certainly daunting,
especially when you have to learn how to use the new tools and how to get the
most out of them.
As one who "grew up" in web coding using CSS instead of tables to layout
websites (almost nine years now), I personally am not struggling with the
variety of tools, but I still see many new websites that do not follow the
standards of construction that I learned.
>Layouts done in CSS are in my experience, more robust, easier to
>understand, easier to code, easier to javascript and easier to manage in
>nearly every other way.
For long-time static sites, with material that isn't going to change or need
updating, I can certainly see the the temptation to maintain table layouts that
have been working for years. A few changes in typography or updating colors
might be all that's necessary to keep a site "fresh." This it not generally the
type of site that the corporate and business world wants as their web presence,
however.
>This rebuttal is ridiculously incomplete, but I don't even know where to
>begin in explaining the benefits of CSS over tables, or how to fit it
>all into one read-able email.
I agree, that task of explaining is difficult, and I'm not going to try to do
it either. However, CSS itself is moving toward allowing the types of benefits
table-layout aficianados promote, so we all may merge into one big happy family
some day. :-)
Cheers,
~holly
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