Part of the point of using CSS for layout is it gives us the ability to separate the content from the presentation. Slapping a form into table cells doesn't allow this. It makes it much harder for instance to restyle the form so the labels appear above, rather than next to the form inputs.
I think you misunderstand the context. Changing the position of tabular data changes the data's meaning; position in this case is not presentation, but content. That's why tables are rigid in their placement of things.
Labels are not separate and distinct items of the tabular data, and should not be confined to separate tabular-data (<td>) fields. Labels, acting as meta-data when associated with tabular data, IMO should be placed within the same td as the data they label; to do otherwise would lose the meaning of the row and/or column. Because in tables, the placement conveys meaning.
What is important in this thread is not the tables vs no tables layout question; this is the same discussion as we always have whenever tabular or quasi-tabular data is mentioned. Refer to the archive for more.
What is important is the recognition that form elements are merely a means to mark up content such that you declare it editable in specific ways by the user, and the choice to present data as editable does not change the data's meaning. Purely interactive/declarative elements without content (e.g., buttons, the form tag itself) are the exception, and in this discussion I think they ought to be outside of the table.
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Ben Curtis
WebSciences International
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