From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Received: from mail-ig0-f178.google.com (mail-ig0-f178.google.com [209.85.213.178])
	by krisdoz.my.domain (8.14.5/8.14.5) with ESMTP id s9EAB3Qe007924
	for <discuss@mdocml.bsd.lv>; Tue, 14 Oct 2014 06:11:03 -0400 (EDT)
Received: by mail-ig0-f178.google.com with SMTP id h3so13919369igd.11
        for <discuss@mdocml.bsd.lv>; Tue, 14 Oct 2014 03:10:57 -0700 (PDT)
X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
        d=1e100.net; s=20130820;
        h=x-gm-message-state:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type
         :content-id:date:message-id;
        bh=WpjbgdxCbmfAGjtFZP9UEeJPWmdNrWA8XBb71YawDSs=;
        b=T1HaGyyeORWZBcxtqGA8B/UlT6WBE7tUaSRGnrus2lQxAtX9ykRbDx/LWIN+AaWNQP
         HIiMvm8LhRd1VXw7dhJr0dSlH8WATCDE71NJyTm2FDAuMblnFe17xdXSSR2K4aY/dXNC
         82LeuojgVR3hy2OG7dS/U9HG2SGx/C4/R+mlhT4y36JvpHW+Z4quPA7kNbHpBZTSxsy9
         UkaY9JmZogGrh/9wkbiuydlH8p1zI3Xtg695QWgXJA3kSKyxKKZtYgBK2k/G8286hQI1
         2VoYwhkS9XBK3MbIiKyE3t5kQbXDUyexj+x/lBayCvvu35pOEafQ2tkLxI33v71usL8L
         H5uw==
X-Gm-Message-State: ALoCoQlQxLVVLul8Yf5r5U0CKGVS+0your73Vr9HBfHyP+Xzq9FXpzkZFB1zdQy8bkE1wG1CQE5m
X-Received: by 10.107.14.198 with SMTP id 189mr822777ioo.65.1413281457468;
        Tue, 14 Oct 2014 03:10:57 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from cathet.us. (75-161-8-145.albq.qwest.net. [75.161.8.145])
        by mx.google.com with ESMTPSA id nj4sm11180355igb.12.2014.10.14.03.10.56
        for <discuss@mdocml.bsd.lv>
        (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 bits=128/128);
        Tue, 14 Oct 2014 03:10:57 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from cathet.us (localhost [127.0.0.1]);
	by cathet.us. (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 690d4340;
	for <discuss@mdocml.bsd.lv>;
	Tue, 14 Oct 2014 04:10:55 -0600 (MDT)
From: "Anthony J. Bentley" <anthony@cathet.us>
To: discuss@mdocml.bsd.lv
Subject: tbl(7) output in -Tlocale
X-Mailinglist: mdocml-discuss
Reply-To: discuss@mdocml.bsd.lv
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-ID: <28309.1413281455.1@cathet.us>
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 04:10:55 -0600
Message-ID: <31798.1413281455@cathet.us>

Hi,

In a UTF-8 locale, groff will output tables with box-drawing characters.
This provides a noticeable increase in readability in terminals.

Rather than the ASCII characters +, |, and - for borders, it uses the
Unicode range U+2500 to U+256C or so.

For example, this table:

.TS
l
l.
Header
_
Data 1
Data 2
.TE

uses U+2500 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT HORIZONTAL for the horizontal line.

This table:

.TS
tab(:) box;
c5 c5 c5.
1:2:3
4:5:6
.TE

uses U+2500 and U+2502 for the sides, and U+250C, U+2510, U+2514, and
U+2518 for the corners.

.TS
tab(:) doublebox;
c5 c5 c5.
1:2:3
4:5:6
.TE

This is an example where Groff's output is not very good: it renders as
'box' does but duplicating the top and bottom lines. Nicer would be to
use U+2550/U+2551 for the sides and U+2554, U+2557, U+255A, and U+255D
for the corners. (Even in ASCII mode it would make more sense to use =
instead of doubling up on -, since they don't make a pretense of doubling
the vertical sides anyway.)

The 'allbox' option uses everything that 'box' does plus U+251C, U+2524,
U+252C, U+2534, and U+253C. Of course, allbox isn't implemented in mandoc
anyway.

-- 
Anthony J. Bentley
--
 To unsubscribe send an email to discuss+unsubscribe@mdocml.bsd.lv