Re: tbl(7) text blocks

[Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@usta.de>]

Hi Anthony,

Anthony J. Bentley wrote on Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 01:21:04AM -0600:

> Groff's tbl(1) manual has a section named "Text blocks." Quoting from it:
> 
>   A text block can be used to enter data as a single entry which would be
>   too long as a simple string between tabs.  It is started with `T{' and
>   closed with `T}'.  The former must end a line, and the latter must
>   start a line, probably followed by other data columns (separated with
>   tabs or the character given with the tab global option).

That's supported by mandoc as well, quoting tbl(7):

    If the last cell of a line is T{, all subsequent lines are included
    as part of the cell until T} is specified as its own data cell.
    It may then be followed by a tab (or as designated by tab) or an
    end-of-line to terminate the row.

> This feature is used by reStructuredText. For example, the following
> selection from mpv(1)'s documentation:
> 
>     =============   ================================================
>     left-click      play previous file in playlist
>     shift+L-click   show playlist
>     =============   ================================================
> 
> generates the following tbl(7) source:
> 
> .TS
> center;
> |l|l|.

Hum.  What mandoc doesn't seem to support is leading vertical lines
(ignored, see tbl_term.c, term_tbl(), 
 if (NULL != hp->prev) tbl_vrule(tp, hp); )
and trailing vertical lines
(errors out, see tbl_layout.c, cell() handles '|' at the beginning,
 but not at the end).

> _
> T{
> left\-click
> T}	T{
> play previous file in playlist
> T}
> _
> T{
> shift+L\-click
> T}	T{
> show playlist
> T}
> _
> .TE

The following slight modification works with mandoc:

.TH bentley140328mod 1
.SH NAME
bentley140328 \- bug report
.SH DESCRIPTION
normal text
.TS
box center;
l | l.
T{
left\-click
T}	T{
play previous file in playlist
T}
_
T{
shift+L\-click
T}	T{
show playlist
T}
.TE
normal text

Probably, the two missing features should be implemented in mandoc.

Thanks for the report,
  Ingo
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