Re: [Demexp-dev] Web Client Interface [status]

[Thomas Petazzoni]

Hi,

Le Sat, 20 Oct 2007 00:33:33 +0900,
Lyu Abe <address@hidden> a écrit :

> But from what I experimented with DIVs, I think there is nothing (or
> very few) to gain in using DIVs instead of tables: for example, if we
> want to use the layout I am currently working on, I think this can be
> done with DIVs only by embedding them one into each other. In that
> case we must use a certain DIVs hierarchy which will finally be
> equivalent to using TABLEs... but maybe I'm wrong, because it's true
> I'm not very easy with DIVs. On that point I'd like to have some help
> if someone can.

You can have a look at
http://www.openweb.eu.org/articles/problemes_tableaux/ (in french).

There's one argument that is not used in that page: the semantic
meaning. Each HTML tag has a semantic meaning, which doesn't imply
anything from a presentation point of view. For example <em> means
«emphasize text», but doesn't say anything about *how* an emphasized
text should be rendered. That's the job of the CSS (with of course a
default behaviour if no CSS is present, or if the CSS doesn't specify
anything for em).

With <div>, it's the same thing. From a semantic point of view, you
only say: «that's an element of my page», and in the HTML code, you
don't say anything about how that element should be rendered (and
particularly its position on the page) : all that is defined in the
CSS. So, using multiple CSS, you can provide totally different
presentations for the same HTML code (I'm sure you know the
http://www.csszengarden.com website).

From a semantic point of view <table> must be used to show tabular
informations. By using <table> to make the layout of your webpage, you
break the content/presentation separation scheme, and you do not
respect the semantic meaning of <table>.

Does that make sense ?

Sincerly,

Thomas
-- 
PETAZZONI Thomas - address@hidden 
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