Design Kludges
By Laura Lemay
Page layout in HTML can essentially be summed up in one word: "kludge." A kludge (pronounced "klooj"), if you are not familiar with the term, is an ancient slang term meaning a somewhat ugly, patched-together, or otherwise awkward solution to a problem. Kludges get the job done, but not very elegantly. For example, nearly anything involving duct tape (except repairing ducts) is a kludge.
Many Web-page design techniques in common use on the Web today, and many of the very techniques I've described in this column, involve kludges such as:
- Using tables for multicolumn layout.
- Using blockquotes (<
BLOCKQUOTE> tags) for indented elements.
- Using tiny, transparent images to get space in between lines or paragraphs.
- Using preformatted (<
PRE>) text to get exact placement of words and lines.
- Using (nonbreaking spaces) to spread out words or characters.
There's nothing wrong with using a kludge as long as it works reliably. But a better, more elegant, long-term solution is to add actual page-presentation behavior either to HTML itself or as a mechanism parallel to HTML.
Real HTML page layout is the "next big thing" in Web design, and both Navigator and Internet Explorer are working toward it (in slightly different ways). By this time next year, most page-layout kludges will no longer be necessary. Real page layout is often easier to implement, understand, and maintain, particularly for large sites. Real page layout will simplify implementing HTML generators from standard word processors and page-layout programs and will become a crucial skill for Web designers in the coming months.
