[ros-web] Re: Interface Team Co-ordinator: mf

[Mikko Tikkanen]

On 6/9/05, mf <mf at mufunyo.net> wrote:
> That's Lynx, not Links, but that's slightly beside the point. Apparently
> (pointed out by Scott) it also manages to parse some CSS, so that
> invalidates my point. Still, there is nothing wrong with using tables.
> That "they are only for tabular data" is a zealous W3C outcry in the war
> against sanity. Call me an old fart for remembering how life used to be
> before CSS came along, but wasn't that just fine as well?

Had to throw in a quick reply, as this one did catch my eye.
There is a reason for "crying tables for tabular data only". Let's
take the obvious one out of the way, they aren't ment for layout, just
for displaying tabular data. Simple, isn't it? But what does that
mean?
Because they simply aren't for layout this brings unnecessary
hindrances, like changing your basic layout. Now, I'm not talking
about anything that can be easily accomplished by changing graphical
stuctures, I'm talking about changing the layout. Completely. I.e.
changing the position and alignment of the menu, from horisontal to
vertical. Now, while using CSS you can simply alter the CSS file and
you have different layout. Or you can even create different layouts
for different situations (i.e. extranet, admin view, etc.) simply by
adding CSS. Not to mention you can have different media types for i.e.
printing.
Tables just aren't efficent. Sure they are bulletproof method but with
little love you can have the CSS handle the same way. Besides, if you
compose your layout correctly, the ones without CSS compatiblity can
still use the site, they just don't get all the "candy".

Next thing would be to check your hits from stat-service.
How much CSS-capable browser hits there is? I'm guessing over 98%.
Getting your compatiblity to 100% is just a dream, unless you happen
to have text-only-site, so some level of incompatibility is
acceptable.
Not to mention that you can easily have media type for speech
synthesizers which you really can't achieve with simple tabular
layout. Or how about hand helds? Easily done and WITHOUT touching your
actual content or site structure. You actually can achieve much wider
compatibility by using CSS.

After all, the basic idea of CSS is to keep your content and layout
separated, which enables easier compatibility and mainentance. How
about introducing advanced options (i.e PHP stuff)? Much better with
CSS since the gadgets don't need to worry about messing up the layout.

xhtml+css is the way to go.

And now I run along again... 8 days and the summer holiday is here!
Which I will be spending working...


-mikko