Why I Hate CSS
Okay, so the title is a bit extreme… but I’m really getting fed up with a few things in CSS. Why is it that it takes me an hour to get things aligned? Why is it that I have to bend over backwards to get the same page to look the same way in more than one browser??
I’ve drunk the whole “web standards” cool-aid - I know the value in staying away from tables for layout, and trying CSS tricks for drop shadows and nifty corners. But at what cost? So I can join the “elite” CSS gurus in the ivory tower of table-less webpages?
Well - poop on it.
I’m using tables again. No, I’m not going gang-buster like the folks at Slashdot and use a zillion tables to do everything. But let’s face it - when you want things to line up - rows and columns kinda do the trick. And it ain’t that hard to do. Oh, suuuuure, my code is little messier - but NEWS FLASH! USERS DON’T CARE ABOUT THE SOURCE! So why do WE care so much?? Why do I care so much?
Sorry - I’ve just been banging my head against the wall trying to get two boxes side by side. Simplest thing in the world, right? Sure… if I didn’t have a copyright footer at the bottom that keeps popping up right smack in the middle of my boxes. I was beating that dead horse for hour and then just threw it in a two-column table. BANG! Everything lined up - in both major browsers. Sheesh, I feel so… dirty. Ewww… tables are evil!
Well, I once I got over my oh-my-gosh-I-used-a-table guilt, I pulled up good ‘ole IE (I develop with FireFox) to view the same page.
Yea, see… I was trying to use pure-CSS corners to round out my boxes. Works great - till you put it in a table - and then IE screws it all up.
Well, now that’s pickle, ain’t it? Is it any wonder that all the major e-commerce sites use tables for their layout and images for their “nifty corners”?
Oh well, I guess one doesn’t make money by being a purist.
sigh Now my head hurts.