Neal said:
Float is only explicitly meant for allowing content to flow to the side
and below if you look at it with a closed mind.
"A float is a box that is shifted to the left or right on the current
line. The most interesting characteristic of a float (or "floated" or
"floating" box) is that content may flow along its side (or be prohibited
from doing so by the 'clear' property)."
The first sentence serves to define. The second merely serves to point out
a feature. If you do not intend to use that feature, it is not necessarily
wrong.
It is not a binary issue (right/wrong), the question is what is the most
appropriate way to code it. To figure that out there is little point in
looking in the spec for a recommendation as to what technique to use for
a given situation, it needs to be derived from an understanding of the
methods available and their respective drawbacks.
"Absolute positioning. In the absolute positioning model, a box is removed
from the normal flow entirely (it has no impact on later siblings) and
assigned a position with respect to a containing block."
Please show where it is said that absolute positioning is inappropriate
when you intend a box to be rendered in a position out of normal flow, and
to remove it from normal flow.
Removing elements from the flow *is* the problem. Issues that result
from it:
1) Absolutely positioned elements are not repositioned when the flow
changes (for example the user increases the font size), this results in
elements overlapping each other.
2) A browser will not produce scroll bars when needed if the content is
not in the flow.
Similar problems occur with floats plus they can cause vertical
displacement of the content.
The CSS table solution doesn't suffer from any of these problems since
it remains in the flow, hence it's "the proper tool for this job".
The flow is your friend, don't forsake it without careful consideration
of the consequences.
