Ah yes, the old tables are bad because... um... well... we said they're bad. Nevermind that they visually work, and HTML email never progressed beyond 1997. They're bad!
And I'm not trying to reignite the "tables are bad" hoopla. I get that tables are for tabular data. They make the most sense and are very good at it. However tables still effortlessly accomplish things that take a mountain of "hacks" and workarounds with other elements, like percentile heights and widths, in conjunction with centering content inside of cells horizontally and vertically, as well as gutters via cell padding and margins.
If this is not the elegant or desired solution, then we as a community need to make a concentrated effort to get HTML email up to spec. It's clearly here to stay, and not some passing fad like was bemoaned at the introduction of richly formatted emails. Unfortunately here to stay has also meant we've been stuck with what we shipped.
Until that day that we finally fix this, I'm erring to the side of tables in emails for greater functionality and compatibility.
Err I think you badly misread that... jarnix didn't say tables are bad, just that 100% width tables are easy to implement yourself. Zurb Ink uses tables too.
Well then perhaps one should explain their stance better. This drive by "bah. X sucks, use Y" is the slow heat death of well reasoned and informed debate and discussion.
And I'm not trying to reignite the "tables are bad" hoopla. I get that tables are for tabular data. They make the most sense and are very good at it. However tables still effortlessly accomplish things that take a mountain of "hacks" and workarounds with other elements, like percentile heights and widths, in conjunction with centering content inside of cells horizontally and vertically, as well as gutters via cell padding and margins.
If this is not the elegant or desired solution, then we as a community need to make a concentrated effort to get HTML email up to spec. It's clearly here to stay, and not some passing fad like was bemoaned at the introduction of richly formatted emails. Unfortunately here to stay has also meant we've been stuck with what we shipped.
Until that day that we finally fix this, I'm erring to the side of tables in emails for greater functionality and compatibility.