[thelist] how does XHTML/CSS separate content from design mor e than using nested tables and the like?

[Means, Eric D]

>  -----Original Message-----
> From: 	Chris W. Parker [mailto:cparker at swatgear.com]
> Sent:	Thursday, May 09, 2002 4:29 PM
> To:	thelist at lists.evolt.org
> Subject:	RE: [thelist] how does XHTML/CSS separate content from
design mor e than using nested tables and the like?
>
> <h1>hi there</h1><br />
> <h2>i am teh computar hax0r</h2>

This is *structural* information.  It says, "This is a first level heading,
this is a second level heading."  It says *nothing* about how those should
be displayed (the browser's default CSS does that).  It gives you
information about *what the content is* rather than *what it should look
like*.

> <font size="7" face="verdana">hi there</font><br>
> <font size="5" face="verdana">i am teh computar hax0r</font>

This is *display* information.  It doesn't tell you *why* "hi there" is
bigger - is it emphasis, is it a heading, or is it just stylistic?  It
doesn't tell you anything about *what the content is*, just how to display
it.

> and with regards to complex designs with CSS, are there any limitations
> to the layouts possible? (i'd assume that the answer would be no.)
> specifically, could a site like amazon.com be built using CSS only? or
> any other such site as that? the reason i ask that is because except for

It could, but depending on how cross-browser and cross-platform it is, it
may not look the same in every browser without incredible amounts of effort.
Sadly, CSS is still somewhat buggy in many cases.

For the major browsers, it's worth the effort in many cases, however.