> > I would pose the counter question: agreeing that it could have been > > done easily enough in CSS, why use a table?
No arguments for the table? :) > Fair enough. Of course, my opinion differs in that I believe that > there is no "standard" mandating that a table not be used for layout. Personally I'm going with the W3C, since they're the best we have ;) > Small-screen devices have a completely different relevancy than many > people allow - or admit. But rather than get into a debate over the > futility of writing to a Twer of Babel mix of small-screen browsers, I > submit that standards-conformant small-screen user agents have no > problems linearizing a simple layout table (let's sic the WaSP on the > bad guys there). Remember, we're not talking about ugly, messy, nested > table layouts as done by Photoshop or Fireworks, we're talking clean, > simple, layout tables used to render stable columns. Unless the device actually linearises tables properly, simple/complex doesn't matter - it's tables used yes/no. I wouldn't bet anything on any mobile device getting anything at all right. We've tested quite a few and most of them are absolutely rotten. > Have a look at this page: > http://www.projectseven.com/csslab/zealotry/linear_basics_ssi.htm There must be a point here, but I'm not seeing it. Are you trying to suggest we should use SSIs? For one thing, we do. For another.. to separate the layout table from the content you'd have to pepper the file with SSI hooks - not something I'd do. > Agreed. And I hope you realize I'm not advocating the use of tables > for layout becoming the dominant force in page design :-) It's not entirely clear, but I had guessed that > What I'm > trying to do is to let people know that if a certain projects and > clients could be more efficiently dealt with by using a simple, clean > table structure, they don't have to feel stupid, evil, or unclean. > There is alleged to be a small faction of intolerant, and somtimes > condescending, people within the standards/CSS community. I've found that many developers out there would take that point and turn it into "that standards guy said layout tables were fine" and spray nested tables and font tags all over their apps again. Give an inch, they'll take ten miles. That's why standardistas can come across as being so inflexible I guess :) Basically though, my stance is that if people are willing to use simple layout tables instead of nested horrors; it's still a step in the right direction. > "Designing with CSS is sometimes like barreling down a crumbling > mountain road at 90 miles per hour secure in the knowledge that > repairs are scheduled for next Tuesday". hehehe I'd say that about all web development... h -- --- <http://www.200ok.com.au/> --- The future has arrived; it's just not --- evenly distributed. - William Gibson ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
