Re: R2866 : better talk about "CSS display" instead of "CSS tables"

On Mon, 27 Apr 2009, Olivier GENDRIN wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 12:52 AM, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> wrote:
> > On Tue, 24 Feb 2009, Olivier GENDRIN wrote:
> >>
> >> Looking at r2866 [1], I note the sentence "primarily using CSS
> >> positioning and CSS tables." I think that it would be less confusing to
> >> talk about CSS display instead of CSS tables (and more accurate from a
> >> CSS spec point of view [2][3]).
> >>
> >> [1] http://html5.org/tools/web-apps-tracker?from=2865&to=2866
> >> [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/visuren.html#display-prop
> >> [3] http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/visuren.html#positioning-scheme
> >
> > I don't understand why "CSS tables" is confusing, nor why it's inaccurate.
> > Could you elaborate?
> 
> It's inaccurate because many noob web designers ignore the others ways
> of display content, beyond tables.

Assuming you mean "beyond CSS tables", I don't think that's accurate at 
all. Few authors of any kind, "noob" or not, use CSS tables today.


> And because you are talking about "a variety of alternatives to using 
> HTML tables for layout" without telling about floats (widely used, 
> mostly because of the lack of support of display: table-cell).

Using floats for this kind of layout is actually frowned upon by the CSS 
working group, so I don't think we want to encourage this.


> I propose the sentence "<p class="note">There are a variety of 
> alternatives to using HTML tables for layout, through CSS: <a 
> href="">positioning</a>, <a href="">floating</a> or <a 
> href="">display</a> mode (like display: table, display: table-row, 
> display: table-cell, but also inline-block, or run-in, compact).</p>".
> 
> I hope I'm clear enough...

I don't think that inline-block, run-in, or compact are suitable 
alternatives to HTML tables abused for layout, and I don't think we want 
to encourage floats. The result is the current paragraph.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
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