Re: Tables Vs Divs
Re: Tables Vs Divs
- Subject: Re: Tables Vs Divs
- From: Patrick Middleton <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 09:49:57 +0100
On 20 May 2008, at 04:45, Don Lindsay wrote:
hello;
People actually create their entire page layout using tables? That
would be a nightmare, althought I guess I can see it if the
application was created for IE 3, which really did not have a way
to position elements well.
Don
IE3 -- or OmniWeb[34].
When I started, HTML was not a page description language (and as far
as I'm concerned, it still isn't). If I'd wanted PostScript, I knew
where to find it.
Using tables for layout was never that bad; I still find this
approach far easier to understand than, say, heavy reliance on CSS2.
NS4 was a problem because it supported nesting tables to a depth of
only 3, but it was a reasonable assumption that if you needed more
than that, you were doing it wrong.
One huge reason for using DIVs and CSS instead of HTML tables is
accessibility. Not all web user agents are browsers. It is seen as
hugely advantageous for users of assistive technologies like screen
readers is to lay out your HTML in the order that you want the screen
reader to read it, then style it with CSS to appear where you want
when rendered on screen. This means you might have a classic three
column layout with a header and a footer:
AAAAAA
BCCCCD
BCCCCD
BCCCCD
EEEEEE
but the first HTML encountered is the 'C' block. Needless to say I
have never found a satisfactory way of achieving this. It is also
true that the row and cell tags of an HTML table break up the content
flow in such a way that can make the text incomprehensible when read
aloud sequentially.
--
Patrick Middleton
OneStep Solutions plc
351 London Road Phone: +44 (0)1702 426400
Hadleigh Fax: +44 (0)1702 556855
Essex. SS7 2BT Email: email@hidden
England (MIME welcome)
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