In my opinion the table-tag is dualistic, it's BOTH structure and content. Hence, there is really no reason why you shouldn't use it for page layout! The point is not to mix up the two types of "tables". Unfortunately, that's exactly what the inventors of HTML have done, creating just one tag for a dual purpose. Using a grid-type layout for web pages is not bad, it's advisable! If you want a strict grid-layout it's not very wise to try to "emulate" the grid by using a lot of blocks.
As Stan mentioned, this has previously been discussed at Ned Batchelder's blog. The solution could have been inventing something like a grid-tag to take care of the grid layout, reserving the table tag for content with a matrix data-structure. I'm not very optimistic...
In my opinion the table-tag is dualistic, it's BOTH structure and content. Hence, there is really no reason why you shouldn't use it for page layout! The point is not to mix up the two types of "tables". Unfortunately, that's exactly what the inventors of HTML have done, creating just one tag for a dual purpose. Using a grid-type layout for web pages is not bad, it's advisable! If you want a strict grid-layout it's not very wise to try to "emulate" the grid by using a lot of blocks.
As Stan mentioned, this has previously been discussed at Ned Batchelder's blog. The solution could have been inventing something like a grid-tag to take care of the grid layout, reserving the table tag for content with a matrix data-structure. I'm not very optimistic...