giacomo wrote: > I know :) but many sites only use *one* table to achieve the above which > (at least for older browsers) result in a need to have the hole page > downloaded prior to have it displayed in the browser. This above layout > can display the header as soon as it is available in the browser. This > way you don't have to wait in front of a blank screen too long.
Many (well not that many, but they are starting to appear, see http://www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/design_rant/ for example, or my own http://cupva.cbim.it [C2 based]) sites use NO tables to achieve layout, but instead rely completely on *standard* CSS positioning properties to achieve layout. Let's face it: HTML <table>'s were never designed for laying out pages, but for laying out tabular data. Unfortunately, since the support for CSS was until recently very poor both in the browsers and in the design tools, 99.9% of current web pages use tables for layout. This is IMHO an ugly hack and we, as a community that strives to adhere to open standards and to the concept of separation of style from content, should avoid it like the plague. BTW, CSS-1 was published in 1996, so it's been out for more than FIVE years, it's time that people start using it for what it was meant for. Using a CSS-based layout also means that people using 4th generation browsers (NS 4, IE 4, etc.) must be "protected" from such a stylesheet or they will see utter garbage. Hiding the CSS from them means that they won't be able to appreciate the layout, but will nonetheless be able to read the full *content*, just not very well styled. But come on, this is a site devoted to *developers* developing for the Web. Can you imagine a web developer today using ONLY NS4 or IE4? Incidentally, adopting a pure-CSS based solution for both layout AND styling means that people using: - text browsers - screen readers for the sight impaired - mobile devices - anything you cannot conceive now but that will be make web access available from your washing machine or whatever :) will be able to access the site contents without their "screen" or reader being cluttered with spurious markup that is not in any way related to the content they need. Before you start mentioning Cocoon's ability to select a different stylesheet based on the User-Agent request parameter, keep in mind that: - we are talking about pregenerating a static version of the site for performance reasons - as I wrote above, you cannot foresee what user agents will browse your site in the near future. In other words, what I am proposing is that we stop worrying about being bacward compatible in order to accomodate old, buggy and non-compliant user agents, but instead start to be FORWARD compatible in order to accomodate FUTURE standard-compliant user agents. Let me know what you think about it and sorry for being slightly OT. Ugo -- Ugo Cei - Consorzio di Bioingegneria e Informatica Medica P.le Volontari del Sangue, 2 - 27100 Pavia - Italy Phone: +39.0382.525100 - E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
