[thelist] Bad Code vs Keeping Job

[l a u r a *^* l y n c h]

I have a potential dilemma in the making and wanted to get feedback before
I actually encounter the problem. I've been given some pages to code that
are not in the area that is normally my responsibilty (basically, I'm
augmenting the guy who normally maintains this area). I've been asked to
code them so that they are similar in style to other pages in the area.
Okay, no prob so far -- he uses pretty standard indenting and so forth. My
(potential) problem is that he uses tables extensively around his forms. I
have forms that work perfectly well (he wrote them -- I'm just adding
styles/graphics/etc.)and do not need to be tabled (well, they're in one
cell -- see examples below). I feel pretty strongly that unnecessary code
should be avoided, but I've got a nasty feeling that they're (the regular
guy and our boss) going to look at the code and tell me to table the forms
to match his. Should I stand up for Good Code and risk having to quit over
my principles or should I just bite the bullet and shove in all the extra
code (note that there are other Bad Code things going on at the site that
I've tried to get them to change [eg, no size tags on graphics, no alt tags,
redundant font tags, unnecessary nested tables, etc. ad nauseum] without
success. We've just gone through a redesign, which I would have thought
would be the perfect time to fix these things, but nobody seemed terribly
concerned or inclined to fix them when I brought them up. *My* area of
responsibility, on the other hand, *will* be properly coded, so far as it's
within my power to do so.) Help! I want to be a good evoltian, fighting for
compliant and functional code, but I also want to keep my ubercool job with
the nifty paycheck!

l a u r a *^* l y n c h
design doyen @ c y b e r w h i r l e d
http://www.cyberwhirled.com
ICQ: 1797450  AIM: cyberminkie

Code examples:

Mine:

[form]
[table]
    [tr]
        [td]
[form element]
[br][br]
[form element]
[br][br]
[form element]
        [/td]
    [/tr]
[/table]
[/form]


His:

[form]
[table]
    [tr]
        [td]
[form element]
[br][br]
        [/td]
    [/tr]
    [tr]
        [td]
[form element]
[br][br]
        [/td]
    [/tr]
    [tr]
        [td]
[form element]
        [/td]
    [/tr]
[/table]
[/form]