> > On 07/09/2005, at 9:31 AM, Kenny Graham wrote: > > > In most of the previous table layout vs css layout arguments I've > > seen on here, people refer to "divs vs tables". Now, I never > > learned table based layouts, and don't understand them (spacer > > gifs, etc). Because of this, I don't/can't think along the lines > > of "I'm replacing tables with divs". But many of the XHTML/CSS > > sites I see clearly do. For instance, they'll put a <ul> inside a > > <div id="menu">, just so that they can style the <ul>, instead of > > just giving the <ul> itself an id. Or put the contents of a > > paragraph inside a <span id="p1"> instead of giving the paragraph > > itself an id of p1. The only time divs don't make me cringe is > > when they're used to enclose a group of elements with the header > > that applies to them, and this purpose of divs is being replaced > > with <section>. I know that divs are more semantically neutral > > than tables, but is wrapping an element in 5 divs and a > span really > > that much better than wrapping it in a table? Hopefully this will > > start a debate that I can learn something from, since I have a > > limited background in tables. >
I think one of the sources of this problem is the common misconception that CSS Layout = Layers and that Layers = DIVs Too often, when I speak about CSS layout to developers who are still using tables for layout, they react with: "Ah, that's layers, right?". And when layers first came out everybody was using DIVs for them. So you now need to grab those old-fashioned developers by the collar, shake them a little, and explain to them in a honey-sweet voice that there is so much more to css layout than plastering your HTML with DIVs. For somebody like yourself who never came across the table layout business and didn't hear somewhere over the grapevine about DIVs and Layers, it is probably much easier to use CSS in the way it is meant to be done. ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
