Re: Columns and other layouts

Thanks to John Lewis and Jose Fandos for your feedback.

Both John and Jose discussed possible solutions to my two layout 
problems. John suggested applying CSS table syntax to the three-col 
problem. This is a solution, but the content is not tabular data and 
presenting it as such is a non-intuitive, if effective, method for 
layout. Jose suggested a technique for centering as used on his site 
www.sonnd.com. This relies on the margin:auto; technique but has 
problems that require fixing with Javascript. The core problem here is 
that CSS alone does not give designers access to the height of the 
browser viewport.

I still feel worried that these and other simple layouts shouldn't 
require solutions with complex syntax. I think that CSS should make 
building pages easier for _designers_. I think the best way for me to 
further this discussion is to put together a list of more problem 
layouts, start distilling these situations into rules and then begin to 
look at potential solutions. I'm not very good at the third part and so 
I may ask the list for help, if that's OK.

If anyone here is a designer who has experienced situations where CSS 
doesn't give them the expressiveness they feel they require, please 
email me on- or off-list.

Thanks,

Ben

P.S. If you think I'm an idiot who's getting this all wrong and 
offending people in the process, please let me know. I'm trying to find 
a way to make CSS more powerful for more people, but I admit that I may 
not be very good at it.


(q)	Ben Godfrey?
(a)	Web Developer and Designer
	See http://aftnn.org/ for details

Received on Sunday, 27 April 2003 19:13:45 UTC