If tables are so evil, why does joomla use tables for its layout?

Question

When you create a template you don't use tables. but when joomla rendereds the page, there are at least 4 places where tables are used to structure the content.

Does this tell you something about tables

or the fact that the joomla community should invest more time and learn how to code css

or just the fact that tables are needed when you don't know what css is going to be throw in later(which probably means they are of some use)?

Answer 1

Joomla has been around before the semantic web. It forked from Mambo, and Mambo from MOS (Mambo Open Server) which used tables extensively in their templates. Back then "everyone" used tables. Joomla has never undergone a full rewrite since Mambo. The latest Alpha is a full rewrite but not yet ready for production. It has better semantic markup.

There have been a few forks of Joomla with semantic markup but none actually went to the core project. Maybe because so many of the templates depended on the tables.