Is there a way to have the middle part where all the content is with divs
instead of tables?
Are tables non-xhtml compliant or the reason for using div/css is just the
size of the page?
The reason to use <div>s instead of <table>s is the size of the page, the cleanness of HTML code, the easier generation of it from PHP, and the possibility to apply multiple style sheets to achive different layout without downloading a new HTML page (eg. print layout, layout without extensive navigation header, etc.).
Also by using divs instead of tables, the page displays faster (additionaly to the faster download), as the browsers does not need to wait for the full table content to download. Having the whole content in a table (as we have currently), means that the browser need to download the whole table contents before displaying anything.
The only disadvantage to consider is that we need to drop support for Netscape 4, but I think this is well worth the innovation, as we can support 99% of our user base much better, who use some browser that actually works...
Goba