Re: HTML output for tbl

[Joerg Sonnenberger <joerg@britannica.bec.de>]

On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 01:36:43PM +0100, Kristaps Dzonsons wrote:
> >looking at the output for queue(3), there is a rather obvious bug in the
> >width output. It repeats the width: xxx for every column, e.g. the third
> >column has three width in order. This magically works due to the
> >overwrite rules, but is far from pretty. I also wonder if we should use
> >min-width and screw IE 6. That and using a single table (not one per
> >row) would be enough to give queue(3) a properly formatted table without
> >having to go extra wide by switching spacing from ex to em.
> 
> Joerg,
> 
> This isn't really a bug: it's because tables can be interspersed
> with arbitrary macros, so each row should in theory be standalone.
> 
> However, I agree that this makes for ugly output, and having just
> tested it with SCALE_EM, I think it's best to keep a few bits of
> state and just reinitialise the table if broken up by other macros.
> I'll write this up when I've a few minutes to myself.

ACK. I do prefer to have SCALE_EX as default, the width can go way too
large otherwise.

> And no, we can't screw IE6.

Well, the other option would be to require a bit JS for IE6. The point
is that it is the only larger browser that might still be used that
doesn't do min-width and also understands CSS. Worst case is that it
doesn't use the size hints -- I consider that acceptable as fallout for
getting much better output with useful browsers.

> It just now occurs to me that, since CSS "cascades" atop the HTML, I
> can set <COL> pixel-widths as a safe default and let CSS, with its
> precise "em" widths, override these values.  This will make browsers
> without CSS also recognise mandoc -Thtml's tables, whether from
> tbl(7) or otherwise, which for now require the style-sheet for
> stipulating widths.

I disagree somewhat. Using col is a good idea as it avoids redundant
markup. Trying to second guess the font width is prone to fail. That's
why specifying a minimal width is better -- it will still just stretch
if needed.

Joerg
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