CSS Takes Too Long
"I'm not evaluated on that in my job performance, so I’m going to do it the fastest way I can get the project out the door"
-- Bob Scott on January 18, 2007
Bob is right, this is a common reason to cite for not doing many things. In fact, at one job, my boss had a sign on her wall "On time, on budget, or on spec - pick any TWO". She believed that it was impossible to build any software project that used good code (on spec), was delivered by the deadline (on time), and didn't cost an arm and a leg (on budget). I had another manager who never wanted us to spend any time learning new technology when we could just do it the old way.
The only argument for this is one you have to have with yourself. You need to believe that learning new technology is ultimately going to benefit you, your company, and your Web site. Once you believe that, you should be speaking up in your teams and telling your manager that you should be given time to learn the new technology.
Then, once you've learned it, building tables won't be faster. And once you've got the speed down, you can point out all the other benefits to using CSS - like accessibility, speed of download for your customers, and ease of maitenance for yourself and any future teams editing the code.
Plus, while you may not be evaluated on that now, in a year or two you might be, and if you don't know how to do CSS layouts, you'll be replaced by someone who was willing to learn it. So saving the time now will provide you with lots of time in the future - while you're unemployed.
I Just Don't Like Change
"Tables ARE positioning elements!! Get over it. Table layouts are as old as writing but typewriters are really where we see the TAB key being used to line up information for display purposes."
-- Name withheld to protect the innocent(?)
If you still feel this way, then clearly there's going to be no arguing with you. But I wouldn't have thought that a Luddite would be using computers now. Sure, we can use a typewriter and the TAB key, but why should we when there are better and (ultimately) easier tools available.
Move Forward!
There is a Place for Tables - Just Not Layout
"After reading endless articles everywhere about TABLES vs. CSS, I must say it really isn’t an EITHER-OR question, but just two different solutions to two different problems."
-- qualityhack on December 12, 2006
Qualityhack, you're so right. Let's keep using tables where they make sense and use CSS to lay out the pages that hold that tabular data.
