Re: [Phpwebsite-developers] Development Questions

[Neal S. <n_s...@ch...>]

>> Most the table tags could be replaced by <div> tags and the CSS  
>> could be
>> what is effected by the templates. If development is going in this
>> direction, I would be happy to help with the coding to get there.
>
>
> I'd disagree partly. Tables are much more flexible for layout than  
> using CSS when used sparingly. The main problem is how to make a 3  
> column layout where the columns collapse when there is no content in  
> the column. With a table it will collapse the column to zero width.  
> Since you have to cope with many different presentations inside a 3  
> column layout with a single theme.tpl file, tables are more flexible.

> You can however change that yourself if you don't need to be that  
> flexible - just edit the theme templates.
>
While I'll agree there are many aspects that make tables appropriate, 
properly implemented, a DIV can be much more flexible. The ultimate 
goal, as I see it, would be to eliminate most of the templates and have 
the CSS generated by the application which turns it into whatever 
columns, headings, or the like.

>
> There's also nothing wrong with using tables for many of the places  
> they are used in phpWebSite as much of the data presented is tabular.  
> I find it quite daft that people go to great lengths to reinvent the  
> table using reams of CSS and co-opting things like definition lists  
> for purposes they weren't intended for.
>
> There are also problems with containing content within divs and  
> problems with disparate heights.

For items that are tabular, a table makes logical sense, but in my 
experience, I've found that a table should be avoided in formatting, 
whenever possible. The options they make available are over shaddowed by 
the difficulty in changing the layout when that becomes necessary.

>
> These problems will become less and less as both we as developers  
> understand the issues and we expand the use of xhtml in phpwebsite  
> but until Internet Explorer is fixed, there's a lot of issues that  
> can't be resolved with XHTML Strict, even if we force on hasLayout or  
> hack around in CSS.
>
> Maybe IE7 will be truly wonderful, fix it's box model, switch on  
> hasLayout, support PNG, support CSS2.1+. Maybe not. But it will be a  
> while before we can rely on decent standards support.
>
>
While Microsoft does seem to have a problem following in line with the 
standards, those problems can be over come with a standard JavaScript. 
It's a solution that not many people take because it means that users 
running IE that have JavaScript disables may have difficulty viewing the 
web page, but most people who use IE don't know how to disable 
JavaScript. (My appoligies to all those IE users I've just insulted). 
People who would generally have JavaScript disabled have moved to 
FireFox or Opera where the non-complience is not a problem.

I honestly doubt that IE7 will have a better complience to the standards 
than IE6. That just doesn't follow Microsofts habits. The only solution 
is to find a way to deal with the differences.