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Re: What''s (semantically) in a form?

2010-03-15T20:04:37Z

On Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:46:12 -0700, David J. Hennessy put finger to
keyboard and typed:
I think that's an entirely apprpriate use of a list. A menu is, after
all, a list of choices. The fact that you're displaying it visually
across the page rather than down it doesn't mean it's any less a list.
After all,

Re: What''s (semantically) in a form?

2010-03-15T18:46:12Z

Thanks for the reality check, all! It's reassuring to know that others
in AWW agree. In general, I tend to make tabular forms, and in general I
use tables to arrange them (with semantic use of <th> and <label>, et
al., of course). Such forms, and presenting tabular data
spreadsheet-style, is pretty much the extent of my use of tables.

Re: What''s (semantically) in a form?

2010-03-15T18:40:11Z

In article <hnk8e5$nu...@news.eternal-sep tember.org>,
"David J. Hennessy"
I would say that a label/input pair is at the very least a dl, not an ol
or ul that you have to torture with CSS and JavaScript until it looks
right. By that same measure, if a form is mainly used to enter tabular
data, there's nothing wrong with putting it in a table.

Re: Beginner Wants to Learn Web Design on MAC

2010-03-15T15:25:49Z

Look at it like this.
The tools for writing HTML and CSS are free. All you need is the simplest
text editor you can find.
The instructional material for learning HTML and CSS is free. There are
dozens of free tutorials, from beginner to advanced, all over the
internet, and dozens of forums where people are happy to answer questions

Re: Your first computer

2010-03-15T15:09:14Z

I was writing BASIC+ Extended V 6B. It sounds like you had more success
writing machine code.

Re: What''s (semantically) in a form?

2010-03-15T15:01:15Z

On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:09:55 -0700, "David J. Hennessy"
Not to defend whatever author was butchering web design in the article you
read. I agree that a form is more amenable to a table than a list! Good
grief. The weird thing about that article is that a list, just like a
table, is an html formatting tool! The whole idea of not using tables is

Re: So, should I re-write all my XHTML pages?

2010-03-15T12:32:45Z

Which is bloody bizarre as it is IE that simply does not understand XHTML.
Offer XHMTL, correctly, with the proper mime type, and it'll politely ask
you where you want to download the file to.

Re: So, should I re-write all my XHTML pages?

2010-03-15T11:49:51Z

He's correct, Brian - IE doesn't know what to do with correctly served
XHTML. It takes more than a DOCTYPE to server XHTML properly - you also
need the appropriate content-type (application/xhtml+xml).
Your server is lying and sending it as text/html.

Re: So, should I re-write all my XHTML pages?

2010-03-15T11:44:22Z

Why just 'target' those two (three) browsers? Why not 'target' all of
them, or none of them? Why write XHTML, but serve as HTML?
All of them. None of them. ;-)
Those, too.

Re: What''s (semantically) in a form?

2010-03-15T11:18:18Z

I too try and avoid tables for layout, but any creed that's followed
with fanatical zeal usually lands the fanatic in trouble, and that one
is no exception. I agree with your and other posts that where you
need both horizontal and vertical alignment together, most probably
the only layout mechanism that makes sense is a table.

Re: So, should I re-write all my XHTML pages?

2010-03-15T10:52:17Z

news:Dgnnn.13149$pv.11901@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Odd, I target IE, Firefox (and when I can be bothered Opera), and I've yet
to encounter a problem with any of them over XHTML. I had thought that IE
was the most used browser, so which browser should I be testing with? or are
we talking about old versions?

Re: So, should I re-write all my XHTML pages?

2010-03-15T09:40:51Z

Why do you use XHTML when the most used browser out there simply does not
understand it, and so you have to serve it up as "text/html' to be error
corrected back to HTML anyway? [1]
Write XHTML, and, lying, serve it up as "text/html"? (also considering
Appendix C)
or tell the truth, write HTML and serve it up as "text/html".

Re: So, should I re-write all my XHTML pages?

2010-03-15T09:19:20Z

Why even consider it? I use XHTML for all of my new sites. Is there
something about XHTML that I'm not aware of that makes you think HTML is the
way to go? Otherwise I'd suggest using whichever you feel most comfortable
with.

Re: What''s (semantically) in a form?

2010-03-15T09:16:04Z

"David J. Hennessy" <spammebutpleasedont@don'tspam thisdudedavidhennessy.net>
wrote in message news:hnk8e5$nuo$1@news.eternal-september.org...
Personally I wouldn't normally use a table for a form, but regardless of
whether you consider a form to be a table or a list (or something else),
there are some things which it is much easier to layout using a table.

Re: What''s (semantically) in a form?

2010-03-15T07:33:53Z

"David J. Hennessy"
Tables are bad if you use complex nested tables in hand-coded html,
for the simple reason that complex nested stuff invariably gets
screwed up when you go back to make some little change in a hurry.
Hand-coding complex tables for layout is a bad idea because of the
maintenance issues; get something wacked up and it's absolute hell to