Re: [Phpwebsite-developers] Development Questions

[Wendall C. <wen...@to...>]

Brian W. Brown wrote:

>>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 have long been an opponent of using tables for layout. The fundamental
>concept of markup is to identify a documents *structure*. That being said,
>phpWebSite will continue to use tables where the data presented is
>"tabular" in nature. Not doing so is as crazy as using table tricks for
>layout. One should also keep in mind that we still must make compromises
>to allow for old browsers and browser incompatibilities with CSS. I wish
>the browser landscape was more friendly, but in reality it is not.
>  
>
I'll add my two cents here. Shawn pointed out earlier that tables are 
necessary for some layout aspects. I agree and would like to point out 
that this has to do with a bug in css 2.0 where there was no definition 
for how overflow was handled. In a table cell, the cell retains its 
width while expanding content vertically. This has been the expected 
behaviour for more than a decade. It makes sense since you scroll 
vertically for web pages and not horizontally. This issue has been 
resolved for div in css 2.1 spec, but I imagine it will be a while yet 
before it makes its way into browsers.

REF: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/visudet.html#abs-non-replaced-width

With Microsofts history of lagging several years behind fixes in specs, 
I can see a valid reason for having the capability of using strict and 
transitional for some time. Just depends on layout needs.

Also, if you read a little bit about the history of tables. W3C has been 
on the warpath to eliminate tables since Netscape added them. Tables are 
very nice to use in moderation and are very powerful for layout since 
their behaviour is predictable, unlike abs positioning. Tables are a 
good thing regardless what w3c has stated. It was their failure to come 
up with a working spec for more than ten years that has made them so 
widely used. I doubt that will change much over the next five years.

Wendall