CSS and tables

[nihalz]

hi
is there any advantage(s) of using CSS for the layout of a page over using tables?
using CSS means using DIV's....so is it better to use lots of divs instead of tables?
if so what are they? and are they substantial?
thanks for any comments!

[Twey]

http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/index.html

[Markxxx]

I like CSS and it's far better than tables. The problem is that different browsers will display CSS differently.

On one site of mine I wound up using so many CSS hacks the cold was so bloated.

In addition to the broswwer types Like IE, FireFox, K-Meleon, Opera, you have IE which will render CSS differently depending on the version. And you also have a huge segments like at my library which uses a proprietary browswer based on IE which is again different.

Add into that different resolutions to computer screens and the widths of laptops, CSS can quickly become a problem on a complex site.

One day when all browsers get the same rules for CSS and CSS has a standard for columns it'll look a lot better

[boogyman]

I like CSS and it's far better than tables. The problem is that different browsers will display CSS differently.

On one site of mine I wound up using so many CSS hacks the cold was so bloated.

In addition to the broswwer types Like IE, FireFox, K-Meleon, Opera, you have IE which will render CSS differently depending on the version. And you also have a huge segments like at my library which uses a proprietary browswer based on IE which is again different.

Add into that different resolutions to computer screens and the widths of laptops, CSS can quickly become a problem on a complex site.

One day when all browsers get the same rules for CSS and CSS has a standard for columns it'll look a lot better

unless all of the browsers merge and become one big conglomerate that will never happen. You will see similarities between browsers and/or its versions if they use the same rendering engine, however getting all of the browser companies to all apply the standards set forth by the W3C and in the same way, well... good luck.

you also need to take into consideration the version of CSS that the browser / version supports. see http://centricle.com/ref/css/filters/ for what I mean by this

[Twey]

I like CSS and it's far better than tables. The problem is that different browsers will display CSS differently.

As they do with tables.

On one site of mine I wound up using so many CSS hacks the cold was so bloated.

I doubt very much if the code was any more bloated than it would have been using tables. If it was, I suspect you were doing something wrong.

In addition to the broswwer types Like IE, FireFox, K-Meleon, Opera, you have IE which will render CSS differently depending on the version. And you also have a huge segments like at my library which uses a proprietary browswer based on IE which is again different.

The differences are tiny. Even comparing IE, one of the worst, to better browsers, the differences between them have to be less than about 15% of the specification. Between non-IE browsers, it tends to be less than 5%. A proprietary browser "based on" IE will not be any different from IE. IE is itself proprietary, and Microsoft don't allow modifications to its code. Therefore, the only way something can be "based on IE" is if it takes the IE rendering engine and uses it whole. That's basically just IE with a different interface, and won't have any rendering differences.

Add into that different resolutions to computer screens and the widths of laptops, CSS can quickly become a problem on a complex site.

If you're having to consider these as problems, you've designed your site badly, and it will be a bad site whether you use tables or CSS.

One day when all browsers get the same rules for CSS and CSS has a standard for columns it'll look a lot better

CSS has a standard for columns, the table-cell value of the display property. Unfortunately, IE doesn't support it.

[starun24]

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