absolute, relative, not set, static positioning ??????

[Rob R. Ainscough]

I'm slowly (very slowly) working my way thru the bizarre and sadistic world
of control positioning in MultiViews (ASP 2.0). I came across this to help
me explain (or attempt to anyway) why my web page controls were all over the
place.

"Ironically, absolute positioning is relative. Yes, you read that right. An
absolutely positioned element is positioned relative to another element,
called the containing block. Here comes the definition of that. Take a few
deep breaths and hold on tight to the armrests of your chair.
The containing block of an absolutely positioned element is its nearest
positioned ancestor, or, if there is no such element, the document's initial
containing block.

By positioned ancestor we mean a structurally superior element whose
position property is absolute, fixed or relative."

OMFG -- and this is a good thing?? Who thought this brain storm of an idea,
some 10 year old? Did anyone stop for 10 seconds to think that the majority
of end users out there don't want their screen appearance to shift and move
based on their current window size and/or screen resolution. It's like an
entire sub-system was invented to deal with the issue that only <1% of the
end user even care about. OMG, this is more designer/developer out of touch
with reality crap. And people still wonder why <20% of the population use
the Internet.

 

[Mark Fitzpatrick]

This isn't MS's fault, that's just the way HTML works. HTML was never
designed to do layout. It's a markup language, which means that it describes
how content should appear, not the where. There are lots of ways to get
positioning to be very accurate, but not through CSS positioning. Through
carefully crafted tables, you can pretty much position anything you want any
way you like it and have a pretty good assurance that it will remain there.

Hope this helps,
Mark Fitzpatrick
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage

 

[Rob R. Ainscough]

Never suggested it was Microsoft's fault -- but do MS provide an alternative
ASP 2.0 control/layout that will remove this child like relationship
processing? I've tried to use the ASP table control, but have not
successfully been able to place other controls within the cells of a table
control -- if this can be done, please give some hints on how to do it. I
have TextBox and Label controls that I'd like to put in a table -- but your
comment of "Through carefully crafted tables" doesn't leave me thinking your
process is any less worky or clear.

The more I work with web development, the more I push my clients to
ClickOnce (screw the non-Windows users, there are so few of them anyway) and
moving away from this ridiculous and extremely worky environment.

Rob.