HTML/CSS question

[javasaurus]

Frames, tables, CSS positioning, all can be used for placing elements where you want them. I know that tables are very old-school for this, and I'm under the impression that CSS is the current vogue, but frames seem more intuitive to me for positioning. Why the move to CSS? Or is there another new method coming?

Comments

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

as for what the amateur can do - table-based layouts are ok if you're not worried about it and just want a "home page" or for, like a blog, you'd rather it "just work" than be technically perfect or forward-looking.

tables are evil if writing a full web application. tables make it hard to support printing properly (with CSS layouts, I can hide away the menu and sidebars when doing a print - see http://www.teoco.com/aboutus.htm and hit print preview - you didn't reload the page to get that new layout). (yes, i know the "go" button is off the screen in firefox - it'll be fixed in the next rollout. that's one of those browser differences issues i talked about above).

tables also make ajax updating a pain because they'll muck around with the layout as you change things. updating divs controlled by css will be more stable-looking.

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the comments! It's a shame that frames have such problems as you mentioned. I've only recently started experimenting with them, and they seem wonderful on the surface. I didn't realize there were printing problems with them. I'll check out the links you suggested, and look at CSS positioning more this evening.

Thanks again!

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

well, keep in mind that css layout thingy is NOT implemented anywhere yet. the spec isn't even done.

just google for "page layouts without tables css" and you'll get plenty of links for templates out there for things the browsers do support. there are even books on just that topic alone.