Jefim Borissov Житие мое

The Web 2.0 craze

The craze of Web 2.0 is consuming more and more developers and their customers. And, from my point of view, this is a good trend - websites are more clear, more usable and intercative - users are happy => site owners are happy => developers are happy. We are all happy.

On the other hand I must say that this craze is a bit over the edge. Why is that and how can it be seen? Well, from a dev perspective this mostly conserns HTML. Everybody wants valid (X)HTML today and I am not an exception. The other side of this is that everyone wants <div> vased websites with <ul> menus. Full stop. Now why is that? I admit, yes - <table> based sites are horrible to look at (the source code I mean). Yes, it is much clearer to do sites using <div> elements. But can anybody explain to me what is this "oh-so-obvious" reason for making menus using
<ul><li> menus? I don't mind it, but let us be honest - this can be a pain sometimes when you want a decent menu.

I see a lot of enthusiasts voting for <ul> who actually just repeat after others. They always use very simple menu examples to indicate how good this costruct is and I do not blame them. But is there any reason to hate <table> in menus? I do not see it. Do you? Using tables for menus is even a bit more natural to me than using lists - they are much more versatile in certain situation and demand much less effort to make them look good. Lists are an idealistic view at the source code structure and are good, but when the customer requires a more complex menu (not just plain background and color changing on hover) I often come to a conclusion that tables are the way to go.

I am, of course, not saying that tables should be used in every single menu, but I want to point is that tables are nothing to be afraid of. Do not listen to the masses, who scream one phrase all the time - think for yourself and decide which concept to use in a certain case of yours. Be reasonable.