There’s been a lot of discussion and hot air in the blogosphere the last couple of weeks on the issue of table-based layouts vs css layouts. I think Andy Budd started it with his Objective Look at Table Based vs CSS Based Design, but it’s been all over the Web Standards Group mailing list. Dave Shea brought it up not once but twice, and Sergio Villarreal over at SitePoint even did Tables Vs. CSS – A Fight to the Death. Patrick Griffiths at HTMLDog put in one for the other side, with Tables My Ass.

But you know what? I really don’t care. Until I started on this rant, I hadn’t even read all the posts I just mentioned in full. I know tables aren’t the epitome of evil. I know that occasionally the effort required to avoid a layout table is not justifiable, especially in a commercial situation. I know Zeldman recommends transitional layouts for people new to standards-based web sites.

I don’t care if people choose to use table layouts over widely adopted, simple css equivalents – that doesn’t necessarily make their sites bad. But you won’t see me doing it, anytime soon or hey, even ever. Plus, we all know how to create table layouts – so what’s there to talk about?