As for the so-called feast of tables, the opinion actually rises to another level. That is to say, if you can flexibly use tables to display customer data, survey data and other information like a professional market analysis company, then you have truly made use of tables. Advantages.
Therefore, the long-used sentence should be changed to "It is unreasonable to use tables as web page layout to layout page elements. Tables are used to display data."
About other elements
Based on my experience, I divide some elements in the XHTML standard into three major categories:
The first category is what I call secondary layout design elements:
Here I am referring to DIV, SPAN, etc. The main function of these elements is to lay out the entire page. Flexible use of various attributes of these elements can make your page rich and colorful.
The second category I call structural elements or information elements
What this refers to is that TABLE, UL, PRE, and CODE elements are a way of displaying and organizing information. For example, TABLE is obviously used to display table information, and UL is used to display columnar information. When a table or list is needed, When the time comes, it is wise to use these two methods to display.
The third category refers to this, which is purely for realizing some functions, such as META keyword for filling in keywords, and A for linking.
Then the correct standard-compliant design idea is:
Use DIV and other layout elements to create page design layout, positioning, color blocks, pictures, etc.
Use elements such as TABLE, UL, etc. to display the data that needs to be displayed on the page
Of course, DIV also plays a role in organizing data. Using the ID attribute of DIV can easily use a DIV as a data block named by you.
Therefore, using WEB standards to create a website is actually a process of rationalizing and integrating information. You should still use whatever elements should be used wherever. Don’t use tables as layout tools.