[thelist] Are you designing with CSS and web standards?

[Jonathan Dillon]

> It takes so long to get them looking the same across all the platforms
(especially Macs).  I'll 
> probably continue to use CSS but sometimes I am tempted to give it up and
just go back to tables 
> so I can just get the job done!

But didn't you feel the same way when you started with tables?  I know I
did.  I remember how daunting using a sp gif was when I started.

Look, I have a very different view of web standards than your average
advocate.  At it's core, XHTML isn't a move towards "validating pages" or
making your website work on any device.  These are just tertiary benefits.
At it's core, it's a move towards the machine readable web (a so called
semantic web).  And that's worth all the effort.  At least if you listen to
folks like Sir Tim Bernards-Lee (the owner of an oddly hyphenated last name
and the title of "inventor of the web".

See, the idea of XHTML (or what we're headed towards with XML described
languages) is actually really cool.  It will lead to machines being able to
process is discover information in ways we haven't even thought of yet.
Imagine if the Internet was a huge meta-database, where huge data
repositories expose massive web service engines that allow virtually
realtime access to relevant information.  Google et al are very crude
attempts at doing this, but once data is standardized and machine readable
(think of it as easy to "slap in a database"), everything starts getting
linked up.

So, when you look at web standards, don't think of it of tables VS
non-tables.  That's just the work right now.  Thing of it as a very large
step towards a really amazing future Internet.  

Here, read this...
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/04/10/frauenfelder1004.asp?p=1

Though for the record, writing web standards compliant pixel "perfect" (aka,
acceptably close) sites is a bit of a pain in the arse!

Jonathan