dive into mark

Dave Winer: Are tables really evil? Those of us who use tables are part of a mass of people who learned to develop websites that way. It’s impossible to get us to change. If that’s your cause I’m not on board. Others (Owen, Dave, James, Sjoerd, Zeldman) have explained why table-based layouts are as archaic as Dave’s viewpoint (which hasn’t changed since 1996), so I’ll just add a few words:

Dave, please recognize that you’re in a special position to upgrade the web. Remember when Google upgraded the web by caching weblogs daily? A small, subtle change — hardly noticeable on the surface (and hardly anyone noticed), but you appreciated it. This is like that, only with page layout. You have the power to control the default templates used by thousands of people who don’t know any better. Very few other people in the world have this kind of power, and you’re squandering it. Look around you; listen to your users: they’re not asking for much, they’re just want default templates that validate (they can use HTML 4.01 Transitional if you like), some CSS-only choices on the templates page of Radio, maybe some downloadable CSS-only Manila templates too. Your users who know enough to appreciate it will appreciate it, and the rest deserve better, even if they don’t know it.

Thanks for listening.

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