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History for StructuredTextTables
??changed:- The current rule for tabs A paragraph that has blocks of text enclosed in '||' is treated as a table. The text blocks correspond to table cells and table rows are denoted by newlines. By default the cells are center aligned. A cell can span more than one column by preceding a block of text with an equivalent number of cell separators '||'. Newlines and '|' cannot be a part of the cell text. For example:: |||| **Ingredients** || || *Name* || *Amount* || ||Spam || 10 || ||Eggs || 3 || This is interpreted as:: <TABLE BORDER=1 CELLPADDING=2> <TR> <TD ALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=2> <strong>Ingredients</strong> </TD> </TR> <TR> <TD ALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=1> <em>Name</em> </TD> <TD ALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=1> <em>Amount</em> </TD> </TR> <TR> <TD ALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=1>Spam</TD> <TD ALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=1>10</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD ALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=1>Eggs</TD> <TD ALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=1>3</TD> </TR> </TABLE> Suggestions for changes? John Odom says maybe all paragraphs between two || should be considered tables rows. To divide paragraphs into columns, a single | could be used. For example:: || this is row 1 this is row2 column1 | this is row2 column2 this is row 3 || should be outputed as:: <table> <tr> <td><p>This is row 1</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>This is row2 column 1</p></td> <td><p>This is row2 column 2</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>This is row 3</p></td> </tr> </table> I would also like to see a way of indicating column span. Perhaps at the end of a paragraph have a number in parathesis. Or if there is only whitespace after a | have that column 'swallowed' by the preceding column. Jim -- I want a table format that looks like a table that I would include in an email. Like this:: Name Favorite Color ------------------------- Jim Red John Blue ------------------------- That might take too much guessing, so something like the following might be better:: |--------------------------| | Name | Favorite | | | Color | |==========================| | Jim | Red | |--------------------------| | John | Blue | |--------------------------| Hm:: |-------------------------------------------------| | Function | Documentation | |=================================================| | '__str__' | This method converts the | | | the object to a string. | | | | | | - Blah | | | | | | - Blaf | | | | | | |--------------------------| | | | | Name | Favorite | | | | | | Color | | | | |==========================| | | | | Jim | Red | | | | |--------------------------| | | | | John | Blue | | | | |--------------------------| | |-------------------------------------------------| These *look* like tables, dang it. Remember, the goal of ST is to avoid markup that looks like markup! Another Suggestion I agree with the last remark, that we should avoid markup that looks like markup. But I think that the amount of ASCII linedrawing required for the last example would become cumbersome. I propose that we implement (possibly in addition to the previous) a way for the StructuredTextNG renderer to make colspan decisions based upon the character column number of the double pipes. I also would like to eliminate extraneous double pipes. Table cells would be broken up based upon which sets of pipes "line up" vertically. For example:: || **Project Status** || || *My Projects* || *Team Projects* || || Project One || 15% || Project A || 100% || || Project Two || 50% || Project B || 10% || ...Should render as: |||||||| **Project Status** || |||| *My Projects* |||| *Team Projects* || || Project One || 15% || Project A || 100% || || Project Two || 50% || Project B || 10% || Or, as a variation on the previous poster's first idea that might eliminate some of the guesswork: For simple, clean tables, table columns might be determined, again, by examining the character column number of a token character on the dividing line. (In this example, a single space character.) My previous table might now be described like this:: ================================================ **Project Status** ----------------------- ------------------------ *My Projects* *Team Projects* ----------------- ----- ----------------- ------ Project One 15% Project A 100% Project Two 50% Project B 10% ------------------------------------------------ And the previous poster's "simple table" might look like this:: ========= ================ Name Favorite Color --------- ---------------- Jim Red John Blue -------------------------- ...Which would render as: || **Name** || **Favorite Color** || || Jim || Red || || John || Blue || I would imagine that this should not be too hard to implement... I can forsee defining a paragraph as a table if it begins with a line consisting only of '=' and the token character. Heck, I could probably write this functionality myself even being a python newbie. --datagrok (Mike Lamb) Yet Another Suggestion Most tables (I would guess 90%) are simple tables. I think that the simpler these tables can be represented, the better. Especially when the tables need to be changed, this should be simple. The use of '||' would make the editing difficult. Therefore I very much like the last 2 examples without the '||'. I would want to suggest an even simpler (only for clean simple tables) solution: Use tabs as column separators. A line that begins with 1 or more non-tabs followed by a tab automatically becomes the first row of a table. The last example would look like:: Name Favorite Color Jim Red John Blue The space in between would have to be tabs. Because I can't see another use for tabs in between text, this could work just for tables. Multiple tabs wouldn't be a problem either. (Martin) <hr solid id=comments_below> gvanrossum (Mar 29, 2001 6:05 pm; Comment #1) -- Can somebody explain why the line '||Eggs||3||' appears in a larger, bold font? it is entered exactly the same as the ||Spam||10|| line before... simon (Jul 11, 2001 5:59 pm; Comment #2) -- Yes - the following line ("is interpreted as") was indented, causing the eggs line to be treated as a heading. datagrok (Jul 17, 2001 1:58 am; Comment #3) -- Martin, [142 more lines...]