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Give Up and Use Tables
By RickMeasham | January 24, 2009
(If you don’t write HTML, you can skip this post. It doesn’t concern you and will just confuse you. Basically: there’s a weird bunch of people who want to avoid a particularly useful way to lay out a web page just because they hold to this notion that “tables are for data”, and the fact that they make page layout a breeze is immaterial.)
I hereby promise not to rant. Much.
Hey all you zealots .. give up and use tables.
If you have to have a meaningless <div>, you’re no longer semantic .. give up and use tables.
If you have to use Microsoft’s conditional comments just to get it to work in Internet explorer .. give up and use tables.
If you have to ask a chat room or forum how to get your three-column layout to work .. give up and use tables.
If you need to vertically center one piece of content against another .. give up and use tables.
If you spend more time arguing with someone than you can save by avoiding tables .. give up and use tables.
If you care so much about avoiding tables that you don’t have any time left to help people with their actual problem .. give up and use tables.
If you end up with classes in your CSS that are designed to give you the benefits of tables without using a table tag .. give up and use tables.
Seriously folks, you’re spending too much time avoiding them and proselytizing about your avoidance of them and not enough time creating useful content that the semantic nature of that content is worthless.
Update:
Woohoo! I just got banned from #html on freenode because I argued for using tables. There was no argument and no discussion. (OK, so I was mocking his inability to justify his contention, but seriously? banned?) BTW: I’m ‘Woosta’, ‘[wito'] is the zealot in question.
[22:53] <to_> which tag would you use to wrap <label> + <input> tags in a form?
[22:53] <[wito]> to_: I’m a fan of <fieldset><label><span>Text:</span> <input/></label></fieldset>
[22:54] <Woosta> I think it would be best defined by the design
[22:55] <to_> [wito]: but if you want to make input floating to the right of label in a 2 columns presentation layout, don’t you use a wrapping tag to clear float ?
[22:56] <[wito]> to_: actually, I use a display:table hierarchy
[22:58] <Woosta> just use a table
[22:59] <[wito]> Woosta: WRONG
[22:59] <Woosta> no: it works and it’s fast
[22:59] <Woosta> piss farting around with CSS is a poor use of your time
[23:00] <[wito]> Woosta: protip: you don’t argue with me.
[23:00] <Woosta> Bwahahahahha
[23:00] <[wito]> Especially not when I tell you to stop offering destructive, counterproductive advice as you are now
[23:01] <Woosta> Zealots make me laugh
[23:01] <[wito]> How about you spend some time in the quiet corner?
[23:02] <Woosta> Why me? I have plenty of time up my sleeve. I think you need the time out so you can get some work done as your stupid-ass CSS crap takes you 20 times longer than a simple table would.
[23:03] [Notice] -ChanServ- You have been quieted on #html by [wito] (wito)
[23:03] *** ChanServ sets a ban on __________.
[23:03] <[wito]> Let’s have some quiet time for Woosta
Update 2:
Found this funny mug on Zazzle
Topics: Javascript, Programming, Web 2.0 | No Comments »