Re: Center DIV

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Afternoon" <afternoon@uk2.net>
Subject: Re: Center DIV


> Despite all the good ideas that have come from HTML as a
> document language, it is used as a document language, an interface
> language, a general purpose XML grammar and several other things.
> Advances would be made more quickly if they were aimed at the current
> situation, rather than a theoretical one.


Cascading Style Sheets is a tool for presenting an HTML/XHTML/XML document.
HTML/XHTML/XML are tools for describing the structure of a document. The
goal of the W3C is to develop these tools so that they are better at doing
these jobs. You cannot expect them to create new mechanisms that undermine
(or even break) this goal.

It is wrong to recommend that presentational HTML hacks should be used to
overcome any failings in the current CSS specification. I am not saying it
is wrong to USE such hacks - I am saying their use should be discouraged. A
properly structured HTML document with presentation controlled exclusively
by CSS will have a significantly smaller bandwidth footprint, as well as
being easier to alter later on down the line. These savings outweigh the
small inconveniences presented in the existing CSS specs.

And the situation you describe is NOT theoretical. As has been demonstrated
in the wonderful CSS Zen Garden*, what can be achieved by doing it The Right
Way is beautiful, functional and adaptable.

* http://www.csszengarden.com/


Simon Jessey

w: http://jessey.net/blog/
e: simon@jessey.net

Received on Thursday, 3 July 2003 12:55:19 UTC