[debaserab2]

Here's an example of what you have to do in datatables to get the elements displayed around the table itself styled (such as a search bar, pagination, or table meta information)

https://datatables.net/release-datatables/examples/basic_ini...

So, in order to adjust the styling of DOM elements around the datatable, you need to understand a very specialized form of syntax that one particular property that controls all DOM element layouts accepts as a string. And there's only one example.

How is that sane?

[arethuza]

To control the structure of whats put in the DOM your are going to need something that looks like a template - so it's never going to be pretty and as soon as you choose any approach to templating it's probably going to upset a lot of people.

I agree that the syntax is a bit on the terse side - but it's not "insane" and at least it is there, logical and documented.

[m_mueller]

I don't find this a problem at all. What's indeed a problem is that it enforces a wrapper div that you cannot control using this syntax. Furthermore, plugins such as ColVis tend to be inflexible due to that wrapper.