Because despite what the CSS purists say, tables work damn well for laying out content.
Assuming you don't care about blind users, yes.
Ask HN: Why is HN HTML laid out in tables?
11–20 of 40 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why is HN HTML laid out in tables?
#12Here's pg's official answer ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1998708 ) : why is the UI so completely neglected? Because when I spend time on HN my top priority is features that will make the content better. I believe that matches the priorities of the users-- that users would rather use a site with good stories and comments and a primitive UI than one with a slick UI and worse stories and comments. And time is a…
The OP isn't talking about Ajax calls and Dom transformations. He's talking about using semantically correct markup (c'mon, it is literally an ordered list) and a style sheet. Things that would make the site faster, easier to maintain, and easier to parse. If this were anyone other than pg, you'd all be excoriating the developer for living in the 90s.
"If this were anyone other than pg, you'd all be excoriating the developer for living in the 90s." ← Yup, that was my point.
Re: Ask HN: Why is HN HTML laid out in tables?
#13Because it works. No mucking about with CSS overflows, stuff that jumps to the next line, things that don't align, etc.
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Why is HN HTML laid out in tables?
#14Because it doesn't matter.
Sure, unless you'd like to validate, parse, maintain, or change the codebase.
edit: oh, and proper markup is faster.
Re: Ask HN: Why is HN HTML laid out in tables?
#15Because it doesn't matter.
If someone writes C/Python/Lua/language-of-your-choice code that violates good principles, misuses constructs, and generally looks like crap, everyone calls them a lousy coder. Yet when it comes to HTML, using semantically incorrect markup is somehow ok.
I understand why pg hasn't updated the display markup, and it's his website, so he can do what he likes with it, but to say "it doesn't matter" is to give anyone writing bad markup a pass. It degrades our artform. That matters.
Re: Ask HN: Why is HN HTML laid out in tables?
#16Here's pg's official answer ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1998708 ) : why is the UI so completely neglected? Because when I spend time on HN my top priority is features that will make the content better. I believe that matches the priorities of the users-- that users would rather use a site with good stories and comments and a primitive UI than one with a slick UI and worse stories and comments. And time is a…
Actually that's the answer to a different question.
Re: Ask HN: Why is HN HTML laid out in tables?
#17Here's pg's official answer ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1998708 ) : why is the UI so completely neglected? Because when I spend time on HN my top priority is features that will make the content better. I believe that matches the priorities of the users-- that users would rather use a site with good stories and comments and a primitive UI than one with a slick UI and worse stories and comments. And time is a…
The OP isn't talking about Ajax calls and Dom transformations. He's talking about using semantically correct markup (c'mon, it is literally an ordered list) and a style sheet. Things that would make the site faster, easier to maintain, and easier to parse. If this were anyone other than pg, you'd all be excoriating the developer for living in the 90s.
It wouldn't make the site easier to maintain. This stuff is all generated by software. All that would change is what the software generated as output.
How much faster would HN pages render if they used "semantically correct markup?"
Re: Ask HN: Why is HN HTML laid out in tables?
#18I know a lot of folks here are actual programmers (unlike me, I mean) and can nitpick anything to death, but maybe folks have missed the part about HN being a little side project that exists to serve the goals of YC? It isn't a high priority for PG. YC is the real business. This is a free service and it serves some of YC's needs but there are no ads, it isn't monetized, etc. Unlike some of the websites folks here own, it seems to me HN does not provide enough value for pg to justify jumping through hoops backwards, blindfolded and on fire to make folks here happy with some cutting edge, WOW! coding.
(Personal note: Now I feel better about my sites being laid out in tables. :-P)
Re: Ask HN: Why is HN HTML laid out in tables?
#19Here's pg's official answer ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1998708 ) : why is the UI so completely neglected? Because when I spend time on HN my top priority is features that will make the content better. I believe that matches the priorities of the users-- that users would rather use a site with good stories and comments and a primitive UI than one with a slick UI and worse stories and comments. And time is a…
Actually that's the answer to a different question.
I assumed your answer would be along those lines since HTML markup is closely related to UI.
Re: Ask HN: Why is HN HTML laid out in tables?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
The OP isn't talking about Ajax calls and Dom transformations. He's talking about using semantically correct markup (c'mon, it is literally an ordered list) and a style sheet. Things that would make the site faster, easier to maintain, and easier to parse. If this were anyone other than pg, you'd all be excoriating the developer for living in the 90s.
It wouldn't make the site easier to maintain. This stuff is all generated by software. All that would change is what the software generated as output. How much faster would HN pages render if they used "semantically correct markup?"
Why are you generating styling at all? It's not dynamic information. It's a static asset that can be cached.
Semantically correct markup uses fewer tags, so the output is smaller (also, there'd be no online styling, which would also make the page smaller). Even a small difference on a popular site could matter. But only you can answer that for HN.
Look, do what you want. You want to write bullshit markup, be my guest. But there isn't a single web dev in this community who would code output like this for their own site. They're just too chickenshit to tell you.