Comments on: Another CSS vs. tables debate

By: Mitch 74

Mitch 74 — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:11:44 +0000

…my bad.

I stiff feel uncomfortable not having a semantic element defining where the ‘table’ (or table body) should be in the HTML markup.

Posted using Mozilla Firefox 3.0.5 on Linux.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 10:02:12 +0000

@Mitch 74:

Take a look. It is defined what an engine has to do if any part of a table is missing while it’s laid out.

Yeah, one can hope for many things to come in CSS 3.

Posted using Mozilla Firefox 3.0.6 on Windows.

By: Mitch 74

Mitch 74 — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:45:02 +0000

@Daniel: while your tip on table-cell (and table-row) actually works, I would personally not use it: it’s a hack you’re forced to use, like in HTML using a bunch of TDs to create inline-blocks… In practice, you would need to give all elements you would want in a table, a specific class (say, 3 paragraphs) and then declare said class to have display:table-cell. Semantically, these elements have something that takes them apart from the page’s body, so they should be marked as such – with a DIV. That, or use a restyled UL/LI combo instead (it may be better semantically)

The ‘only’ problem one has to solve, is that we now have a ‘table’, and ‘table cells’; but no table row. It is also a limitation of HTML, that you can easily set up rows, but not columns. That’s, personally, what I want most from CSS3.

Posted using Mozilla Firefox 3.0.5 on Linux.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:38:40 +0000

Actually CSS allows table layout with less elements than HTML tables do.

You can simply make an element (and it’s siblings) display: table-cell and CSS creates anonymous boxes for table-row and table.
That’s good for the simple 3-column-layout.

If you want more rows you need display: table-row, but still no table.

Anyway, only time will tell how CSS Tables will find their way into the web in the next years.

Posted using Mozilla Firefox 3.0.6 on Windows.

By: Scotandrsn

Scotandrsn — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:13:05 +0000

There are so many things wrong with that rant, it would take pages to sift it all out. I couldn’t even bring myself to finish reading it.

Early on, the blogger declares that if CSS is too hard for the apparent army of geniuses at the design firm Maxdesign from which he drew his faulty 3-column layout, then it must be worthlessly impossible.

A look at Maxdesign’s site however, is revealing. The entire firm seems to consist largely of one Russ Weakly. Does a solid business have their top manager’s personal e-mail address as their main contact, as on this page? A look at their promoted sites, or at least the thumbnails of same suggest they stick to two or three base layouts and the rest is Photoshop.

I’d hardly place them on a pedestal as being any kind of world class web design firm. And I certainly wouldn’t stake my own credibility on such a perception.

Posted using Mozilla Firefox 3.0.6 on Windows.