On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 10:52:56AM -0400, tedd wrote: > At 9:08 AM -0400 5/23/09, Robert Cummings wrote: >> Ya know... the people over at HTML standards design cold have saved the >> world a large number of headaches by just adding a new attribute to >> tables: >> >> <table type="layout"> >> >> Then everyone layout table out there would have been valid by the simple >> addition of this attribue, backward compatible with older browsers, >> understandable by future screen readers, and much less hassle in >> general. But, I guess they were lacking some insight there. Instead we >> got a CSS spec to support table layouts that depended on the asshats >> over at Microsoft adding support, required all browsers at the time be >> upgraded, and today is pretty much useless in a global perspective. I'm >> all for standards, we could have even overlapped this system with CSS >> support so that when the browser support ultimately came, the switch >> would be simple. But no, simplicity would have been far too easy for >> everyone to swallow. > > Rob: > > Ain't that the truth. > > On one side, people who had very little programming skills took > advantage of the HTML language through WYSIWYG editors and created > something that solved their needs. > > On the other side, the same people who didn't foresee the problem > when they created the language ignores the obvious need for layout > and then further complicates the issue by redefining tables and > requiring a css solution. They could have easily sought a simple > solution such as what you suggested. > > I often think there should be a "grid" of some sort to allow people > to construct a layout without having to consider the more problematic > css positioning and float rules. What better solves that layout > problem than a table? Opportunities lost. I wish someone had thought of a similar thing for databases. From the beginning, there should have been a spreadsheet-like interface for databases. This could have saved endless trouble, since for lack of this, people store database information in spreadsheets. And then wonder why they can't do this or that with it. Argh. Paul -- Paul M. Foster -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
