Re: tables/css/screen readers

by "Bert Doorn" <bert(at)betterwebdesign.com.au>

 Date:  Tue, 16 Oct 2001 11:20:17 +0800
 To:  "HWG Basics" <hwg-basics(at)hwg.org>
 References:  0
  todo: View Thread, Original
G'day

> Won't it be a wonderful day when browser css support reaches the point
that
> we have other (realistic) options besides the use of tables for ~any~
> realistic page layout control ?!?!?!!?

Yeah, but as long as we keep writing pages that "support" IE2 and NN2, there
will be people who don't see the need to upgrade their browsers. Not that I
am advocating writing sites that only display in IE/NN6.   But when does a
browser get so old that we stop supporting it?  Sure, if you are doing a
site for client who uses an old browser and pays you to make it "look good"
in that browser, use old standards.  But otherwise?

> I'm telling ya, this makes a strong argument (in my book) for
concentrating
> on _ content _ not _ control _ of web pages at this point in time . . .
> well, *if* you are trying to reach the largest possible audience, anyway
;-).

OK, you could always write plain text pages.  No images.  No tables.  No
Frames.  No Flash.  No Nothing.  Just text.  Don't bother with colors
either - no good for someone using a black&white 13 inch TV to view the site
on a Commodore Vic 20 with a 300bps modem <GRIN>   Limit your creativity to
just the following elements and all will be swell:

The big 4 (HTML, HEAD, TITLE, BODY)
P
BR
H1 to H6
A
PRE and a few more simple ones
Maybe some META tags, but why bother?  If it's all text, search engines
should be able to make sense of the page anyway?

Should work in any browser!   Your clients will love you for it, even if
people don't buy their products because the site is more boring than a
telephone book.  You might not get paid much for it either.  Hmm.  Talking
about telephone books, our Yellow Pages (printed) does have images.  And
they are positioning the images in a table. Vandals!

My own (poor) attempt at Fuzzy logiic.
--
Bert Doorn, Web Developer
http://www.betterwebdesign.com.au/
Beginners Web Design Tutorial
http://www.bwdzine.com/bwdt/

HTML: hwg-basics mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA