The web started a move to being all about semantics, machine readability and interpretation of pages by robots (like Googlebot). Personally I threw my lot in with XHTML and started moving to XFN and other microformats.
One of the big things with tables was screenreaders. Screenreaders assume a table is tabular data and treat it as such leading to a terrible UX. Where I am, a business that doesn't make reasonable changes to accommodate disabled users is acting unlawfully.
Screenreaders basically amplified the error of using semantic markup where non-functional style is intended. Semantics was the in thing for a while and separation of function and style pushed people towards using pure [X|]HTML with no extraneous tags and all styling performed outside the markup via CSS files. Tables for tabular data only.
CSS promised to bring table-layouts to 'display:' in CSS1 but IIRC MSIE put the kibosh on that one [that's en-gb euphemism for 'stopped it'] and indeed it's only just become fully supported in IE9 I think.
Markup philoshopies aside it was a real bitch trying to edit tables or change layout with tables without decent visual layout tools. You'd have a page-table (for body centering), then that would have a table for a main grid, then you'd have a table for the visual header, a table for the menu, a table for the ads column(s), tables for the footers, tables to put pull out quotes in, tables for aligning images. All those tables made page markup significant at a time when home users didn't have ADSL connection yet.
You'd end up with nests of tables easily 10 deep on some sites and working out in the markup what was happening in such a site was a nightmare. In contrast a well CSS formatted page is (was?) slim, the content is simple and changing layout is just a matter of altering the CSS and not re-writing the whole page.
It became a point of pride for many to avoid frames, a way to show one knows ones game. For a while it seemed that as no really needs to wrangle with IE6 all the fun would have gone out of CSS layout ... but then we got iPad and a million different android resolutions to worry about and so again there is pressure to use liquid responsive layouts where in the interim things have gotten very much focussed on pixel-perfect presentation.
That all said I was having the same thought the other day - that CSS grids are starting to look a bit messy and that I'm ready for the next iteration.
The web started a move to being all about semantics, machine readability and interpretation of pages by robots (like Googlebot). Personally I threw my lot in with XHTML and started moving to XFN and other microformats.
One of the big things with tables was screenreaders. Screenreaders assume a table is tabular data and treat it as such leading to a terrible UX. Where I am, a business that doesn't make reasonable changes to accommodate disabled users is acting unlawfully.
Screenreaders basically amplified the error of using semantic markup where non-functional style is intended. Semantics was the in thing for a while and separation of function and style pushed people towards using pure [X|]HTML with no extraneous tags and all styling performed outside the markup via CSS files. Tables for tabular data only.
CSS promised to bring table-layouts to 'display:' in CSS1 but IIRC MSIE put the kibosh on that one [that's en-gb euphemism for 'stopped it'] and indeed it's only just become fully supported in IE9 I think.
Markup philoshopies aside it was a real bitch trying to edit tables or change layout with tables without decent visual layout tools. You'd have a page-table (for body centering), then that would have a table for a main grid, then you'd have a table for the visual header, a table for the menu, a table for the ads column(s), tables for the footers, tables to put pull out quotes in, tables for aligning images. All those tables made page markup significant at a time when home users didn't have ADSL connection yet.
You'd end up with nests of tables easily 10 deep on some sites and working out in the markup what was happening in such a site was a nightmare. In contrast a well CSS formatted page is (was?) slim, the content is simple and changing layout is just a matter of altering the CSS and not re-writing the whole page.
It became a point of pride for many to avoid frames, a way to show one knows ones game. For a while it seemed that as no really needs to wrangle with IE6 all the fun would have gone out of CSS layout ... but then we got iPad and a million different android resolutions to worry about and so again there is pressure to use liquid responsive layouts where in the interim things have gotten very much focussed on pixel-perfect presentation.
That all said I was having the same thought the other day - that CSS grids are starting to look a bit messy and that I'm ready for the next iteration.