The downside is that a table has to be downloaded completely before any part shows up in a browser screen, and that Netscape table layout is slow and unresponsive, at least on the Macintosh. That's the part that renders tables, and is why I'm not using them. I will use Javascript and Java as needed. I have plans for this site that involve Java applets, simply because I can't do what I want to do without them. I have other plans that don't need applets, and on those pages there's no need to use them.
Speed is life.
Above all, I want to avoid presenting you with a lot of boring words. The net is slow enough right now, and I think it's going to get slower before it gets faster. I want my pages to be nice and trim so that they get through the net in one small piece each. Thank you for coming to my web site. I hope you like it here.