CSS table layouts share all of the many drawbacks of HTML table layouts, except for the false semantics (one of the least significant issues IMO).
I agree, CSS needs something like the XUL flexible box model.
Afaics this is off topic for this list, so I'm not going to add further to this thread spin off.
It prolly is, oh well. -- Anne van Kesteren <http://annevankesteren.nl/> <http://www.opera.com/>