I’m glad you asked that, timmy.
Errr, Martin, rather. I can’t believe i made a Mr. Wizard referance in the subject line. I am glad you asked that though, as it does make allow me to be a pompous ass without wondering if anybody cares.
You see the real reason to switch from “pure” HTML to CSS is one of semantic groupings. All us programmers and tech heads would rather think of our webpages as “code” rather than “formatting,” so the changeover actually makes webcode make more sence. You go from saying “this is a table, and these are rows and this area is a cell” to saying “this is called ‘blueSubjectBox’ and anything of this type has this behaviour.” It is going from being a typesetter to being a coder. Plus it makes my code look wicked cool. Check this out:
BEFORE:
<table cellspacing=1 cellpadding=0 bgcolor=”#000000″>
<tr>
<td>
<table class=”blueMenuBar” width=”100%” cellpadding=2 cellspacing=2>
<tr>
<TD width=”66%” style=”border:0px;” bgcolor=”#12386f”>
<a name=”000181″><img src=”http://www.ninjasuperspy.net/docs-images/close_up.gif” align=”left” class=”menuBlock” alt=”Menu goes here” height=”11″ width=”11″></a>
</td>
<TD align=center class=”blueSubjectBox”>
<span class=”shadowTerm”>:: <a name=”<$MTEntryID pad=”1″$>”></a><$MTEntryTitle$></span>
</TD>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class=”postBody”>
<table cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0>
<tr><td>
<p align=”justify”>
<$MTEntryBody$>
<span class=”extended”>
<MTEntryIfExtended>
<script type=”text/Javascript”>moredivider();</script><br />
<$MTEntryMore$>
</MTEntryIfExtended>
</span><br />
</p>
</td></tr>
<tr><td class=”byline”>
Posted by <$MTEntryAuthor$> at <a href=”<$MTEntryLink$>#<$MTEntryID pad=”1″$>”><$MTEntryDate format=”%I:%M %p”$></a> |
<$MTEntryCategory$>
<MTEntryIfAllowComments>
| <a href=”<$MTCGIPath$>mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=<$MTEntryID$>”
onclick=”OpenComments(<$MTEntryID$>); return false”>Comments (<$MTEntryCommentCount$>)</a>
</MTEntryIfAllowComments>
</td></tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
AFTER:
<div class=”entryItem”>
<div class=”blueMenuBar”>
<span>
<a name=”">
<img src=”http://www.ninjasuperspy.net/docs-images/close_up.gif” class=”menuBlock” align=”left”>
</a>
</span>
<span class=”blueSubjectBox”>
<span class=”shadowTerm”>:: <a name=”<$MTEntryID pad=”1″$>”></a><$MTEntryTitle$></span>
</span>
</div>
<div class=”mainBG”>
<br /><$MTEntryBody$>
<span class=”extended”>
<MTEntryIfExtended>
<script type=”text/Javascript”>moredivider();</script><br />
<$MTEntryMore$>
</MTEntryIfExtended>
</span><br/>
</div>
<div class=”byline”>
Posted by <$MTEntryAuthor$> at <a href=”<$MTEntryLink$>#<$MTEntryID pad=”1″$>”><$MTEntryDate format=”%I:%M %p”$></a> |
<$MTEntryCategory$>
<MTEntryIfAllowComments>
| <a href=”<$MTCGIPath$>mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=<$MTEntryID$>”
onclick=”OpenComments(<$MTEntryID$>); return false”>Comments (<$MTEntryCommentCount$>)</a>
</MTEntryIfAllowComments>
</div>
</div>
Well, that and it allows me to offload all of my formatting to a different file. So if i want my sidebar on the other side, i just change one thing, and all over the place it is different. Or if i want to change something’s color, then its all there with a change of one file and reflected all over. I’m just reall excited about this: i’ll give good tip links in the extended so people can get more info from people who actually know their shit.
It has also given me something to futz with while i was waiting for my robot parts to arrive.
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