[CLUE-Tech] Using CSS to get an HTML table effect.

[Mike Staver]

Michael J. Hammel wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-10-28 at 17:54, Mike Staver wrote:
> 
>>I'm going to strongly agree with Keith here.  I spend 90% of my work 
>>days writing html/javascript/cold fusion/sql code, and I HATE pages that 
>>combine CSS and div tags to accomplish a layout.  It doesn't work from 
>>browser to browser the same way, and that forces me to waste massive 
>>amounts of time writing java scripts that check for browser version and 
>>then write 2 sets of page layout code for everything.  In my opinion, 
>>nothing beats using tables effectively.  Granted, Netscape 4.X has 
>>major, major issues with nested tables at a certain level, but Mozilla 
>>(Netscape 6+) and IE 5+ seem to get along great with nested tables. 
> 
> 
> I have to disagree with this.
> 
> All major browsers (such as Mozilla based and IE based) except Netscape
> 4.x will handle CSS / Div based pages just fine.  They don't all do it
> the same way, of course, but the overall effect can be made to be
> similar on all of those browsers.  And you don't need browser detection
> code to do it either.  I didn't figure this out - Eric Meyer did. 
> Clever guy.

It's a total matter of preference - I don't have a lot of time to waste 
on figuring out what browsers my code will and won't work in, and more 
importantly why.  I know for a fact that tables work fine in the later 
versions of Netscape/Moz and IE.  I test each page I write in both 
browsers, and it can consume enormous amounts of time when I try to 
write CSS pages that have the same effect on both platforms.  CSS does 
technically work in most cases, but not the same - that's unacceptable 
to me.  When I'm writing javascript drop down menus based on specific 
points on the screen, I can't have divs showing up differently in 2 
different browsers.

> If you need Netscape 4.x compatibility, you must use tables.

And yeah, most websites I have been involved in are not intranet-only 
sites - so Netscape 4.X is unfortunately still a must.


-- 

                                 -Mike Staver
                                  staver at fimble.com
                                  mstaver at globaltaxnetwork.com