[thelist] CSS or table?

[the head lemur]

Tables are supported in Graphic browsers back to v.3.

CSS has no support in V3
(unless you consider Blink or Marquee tags as enhancements)
Limited CSS 1 support in V4(mostly proprietary Layer/Div)
Better but incomplete support in V5
Alleged CSS 1 complete support in V6

Practical? No and  Yes.
 From the viewpoint of looking for the largest possible audience, no. The
majority of browsers have limited support which limits your use of CSS for
separating the content from the candy. Simple tables will allow you to keep
some semblance of order to your work.

 From a design and maintenance standpoint, yes. Earlier browsers will ignore
things they don't understand. Stylesheets can give you an enormous range of
options for display of the textual content of your sites. Yes you can use it
to push around images as well.

Change one file and create a new site.

CSS should be embraced at the earliest opportunity by everyone who wrestles
pixels for a living. It should be experimented with to the limit of your
ability and stable of browsers.

CSS will become increasingly more important for the next couple of years as
an important part of the designers toolbox. All of the strategies for
conserving bandwidth, from simple coding, optimizing image sizes, addressing
accessibility concerns and file sizes will need to be kept at the forefront
of your design efforts. CSS currently will only take you so far.

My feeling for this is based on two events that are impacting everyone who
works in this electronic media. Microsoft's decision not to include the JVM
or Java Virtual Machine and not supporting Netscape style plugins, such as
QuickTime, in the V6 browser. This decision will break every site using Java
applets for display. There is already a workaround for the QuickTime plugin.

You will still be able to use the <embed> tag to present these content
types.

The other event is the rapid shakeout of High Bandwidth providers. DSL,
Cable, and other post-modem connection providers. Broadband as a concept is
very nice. The reality is extremely ugly. Broadband companies are failing as
fast as the new media companies did last year.

This impacts your decisions as a developer. CSS enables you a larger range
of display options without relying on proprietary technologies and a descent
into the dark ages of "Best Viewed With" or worse "Only Viewed With".

the head lemur
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