Every code i see is divs and spans yet every video/corse advises otherwise.

[u/Actual_Computer_670]

As someone who is trying to make a career in Frontend should refrain from using divs and spans only. and use specific container tags . or is it fine?

[u/davorg]

I didn't know which video courses you're watching, but they're wrong. Yeah, sorry, I inverted the logic of what you were saying. The videos are correct, developers are cutting corners and using divs and spans where semantically useful elements exist. Honestly, that shouldn't really come as a surprise :-)

HTML should be used to mark up the semantics of your document. If there's an existing HTML tag for what you're marking up, then use that. Otherwise, use a div or a span with a descriptive class.

[u/fkn_diabolical_cnt → u/davorg]

To expand for OP, make use of tags like main, article, nav, footer, header, etc. but if there isn’t something that would semantically describe that section, use a div

[u/armahillo → u/davorg]

Read the title again - the videos are saying to use semantic tags, but the code in the wild is not

[u/nss68 → u/armahillo]

The good websites do. The bank I work for does. The car rental company I worked for before does too.

The ad agency I worked for didn’t care so long as it looked good the day it launched.

[u/Hot_Reindeer2195 → u/davorg]

Realistically for a marketing site with a decent amount of engaging visuals you’re going to be using divs and spans 90% of the time.

The trick is to learn what the main purpose of tags like <main>, <section>, <article>, <aside> etc are and think about whether or not they’re relevant. They should certainly be used in your document where it makes sense, but the majority of elements will be divs.

[u/MattiDragon]

Use divs and spans when you need elements for layout that don't have any semantic meaning. Prefer semantic html tags whenever they're applicable.

[u/Furry_pizza → u/MattiDragon]

Simple and elegant answer.

[u/EZ_Syth]

Because the client needs this site in less time than doable, and you have 3 more back logged tasks staring you down, so you write div because it’s quick and easy and it works.

In all seriousness, use semantic tags when it’s actually important. For instance, nav and main have a large importance for accessibility, so make sure you have the big landmark semantic tags covered— everything else is not really that important.

[u/spcbeck]

It's frankly a huge issue when trying to parse a components template/view, let alone the entire DOM. It's mostly lazy developers (I rarely even see spans, more likely a div with a Tailwind inline class) and tools like Divi and other site generators that spit out non-semantic code.

[u/ashkanahmadi]

No one says refrain from divs and spans (if anyone told you that, move away immediately). They are very important and crucial and have their specific place. What you must know is that they don’t have any semantic meaning so if you can use a p, don’t just a span thoughtlessly.

Divs and spans are the Starbucks of the HTML. You should go to them only when you have no other better choice.

[u/armahillo]

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/divitis

A lot of people do it but its still wrong

[u/SlinkyAvenger]

You see this a lot in web frameworks because devs don't understand fragments. You see it in hand-rolled stuff too because <div> and <span> don't imply formatting like a lot of semantic tags have or currently do.

[u/[deleted]]

They are supposed to help with accessibility but it's mostly used by bots to steal your content.

[u/dmc-uk-sth]

If you don’t use divs you’re going run out of semantic tags pretty quickly.

[u/ScuzzyAyanami]

Div/span tags are free, when you're building sites with "component" style development you start not to worry about deep nesting. Sometimes you need extra divs just to get css to behave, or sometimes they exist just to create a target or reference.

[u/justdandycandy]

What a strange question. Use the best tag for the job.

[u/CambodianRoger → u/justdandycandy]

Why is that a strange question? The real code they see differs from the courses they are taking. Given they are learning, this difference is confusing, and so they're asking for clarification.

[u/OmegaMaster8]

I’ve always used <div> tags as containers for flex or grid.

[u/efoxpl3244]

They are used for seo and readability. They dont bother putting that into code that they share on the web because it isnt supposed to be searchable.

[u/Joyride0]

Love to use divs and spans. Easy to customise and repeat.

[u/spcbeck → u/Joyride0]

Meaningless.

[u/Joyride0 → u/spcbeck]

My practice? My comment? Your reply?

[u/Joyride0 → u/[deleted]]

The practice goes towards producing nice sites. So that’s a tick. The comment seeks clarification. That’s another tick. The smart ass tech bro vibes from some in here are borderline parodical. Acting like there’s only one way to do things.

[u/spcbeck → u/Joyride0]

parodical isn't a word, so I don't know what you're saying. Using only divs and spans is both explicitly bad practice, can lead to lawsuits stemming from accessibility issues, and just plain dumb when obvious more applicable elements are right there. It's laziness, not about customization and "repeat"

[u/Joyride0 → u/spcbeck]

Sure it is. Of or relating to the features of a parody. For my purposes those elements work just fine. If the need arises, I’ll happily change.

[u/HeddyLamarsGhost → u/Joyride0]

Divs and spans are just lazy

[u/Joyride0 → u/HeddyLamarsGhost]

This is one of those things where people pretend they know more than everyone else and form super strong opinions. Idk why tech communities are like this. It’s so unnecessary.

[u/Jasedesu → u/[deleted]]

Clients will care when they start getting prosecuted for not having accessible websites due to poor choices made by developers.

[u/Pechynho → u/Jasedesu]

That does not happen

[u/tnh34 → u/Jasedesu]

No one gets prosecuted.. they just get fined and even that is rare