Tables are for displaying data, not styling. They worked in the past because there was no alternative but they are the wrong tool for the job; like cutting a board with a hammer.
Any tool or resource is for whatever usage people make out of it.
The distinction between data and layout is not some inviolable dogma.
Tables still work in the present, even if there are alternatives nowadays.
like cutting a board with a hammer
Frankly, that is a short-sighted and really dumb analogy.
A hammer won’t be able to cut the board. A table will however be able to create the basic layout of a site.
A better analogy would be cutting some wood with a knife. Sure, if the chunk of wood is really thick you’ll waste a lot of time doing it, and you’ll probably want an axe or saw instead; but even the knife will do it. However, if it’s just some thin branch, the knife will do the trick.
And it’s the same deal here. If you’re making a huge site, full of SEO and machine-generated “content” and 4MiB of Javascript and lots of “marketing opportunities” (i.e. spam = advertisement) from your “associate partners” (i.e. spammers = advertisers), that’s going to be maintained by some intern, you’ll probably want to use CSS. But if you’re making some simple homepage,
<table><tbody><tr><td>
side panel
</td><td>
maincontent
</td></tr></tbody></table>
will do the trick. For everything else, it depends.
Tables are for displaying data, not styling. They worked in the past because there was no alternative but they are the wrong tool for the job; like cutting a board with a hammer.
Any tool or resource is for whatever usage people make out of it.
The distinction between data and layout is not some inviolable dogma.
Tables still work in the present, even if there are alternatives nowadays.
Frankly, that is a short-sighted and really dumb analogy.
A hammer won’t be able to cut the board. A table will however be able to create the basic layout of a site.
A better analogy would be cutting some wood with a knife. Sure, if the chunk of wood is really thick you’ll waste a lot of time doing it, and you’ll probably want an axe or saw instead; but even the knife will do it. However, if it’s just some thin branch, the knife will do the trick.
And it’s the same deal here. If you’re making a huge site, full of SEO and machine-generated “content” and 4MiB of Javascript and lots of “marketing opportunities” (i.e. spam = advertisement) from your “associate partners” (i.e. spammers = advertisers), that’s going to be maintained by some intern, you’ll probably want to use CSS. But if you’re making some simple homepage,
<table><tbody><tr><td> side panel </td><td> main content </td></tr></tbody></table>will do the trick. For everything else, it depends.