Re: choice for table material

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

At 10:21 PM 7/4/01 +0200, Eckhart Guthöhrlein wrote:
>At 18:23 04.07.2001 +0200, I wrote:
>>I am a bit confused about the different possibilities to typeset tables, 
>>so let me first outline how I have understood things. If a table may be 
>>split across pages, tabulate is the one to choose. If not, there are two 
>>possibilities: table and TABLE. TABLE is the most recent development. Is 
>>it principally more advanced and preferrable to table, which would mean 
>>that table is there for backward compatibility reasons only, or are there 
>>effects which can be achieved with table, but not with TABLE?
>
>Well, I have learned in the meantime, sorry if my posting was a bit 
>premature. tabulate can very well be used for tables in floating objects, 
>and it's interface is flexible and well documented, so it will probably 
>become my preferred choice for now. TABLE is beta, and since the 
>documentation is beta, too, it's perhaps a good idea to wait some time, 
>especially if one is in a hurry to get things finished - like I am at 
>present. But I must say that it looks like a very promising concept for the 
>future.

Wanna see some wild things? Overlapping table cells with shaded backgrounds: 

% output=pdftex

\starttext 

will go into mp-core, was somehow lost 

\startMPinclusions
def initialize_area (expr fn,fx,fy,fw,fh,fd,
                          tn,tx,ty,tw,th,td) =

  numeric fpos ; fpos := 1 ; initialize_box_pos(fpos,fn,fx,fy,fw,fh,fd) ;
  numeric tpos ; tpos := 2 ; initialize_box_pos(tpos,tn,tx,ty,tw,th,td) ;

  do_initialize_area (fpos, tpos) ;

enddef ;
\stopMPinclusions

\setupbodyfont[pos,10pt]

\setupcolors[state=start]

\def\cw#1{\color[white]{#1}}

% this one uses metapost, 

\def\TableShade#1#2%
  {\startMPpositiongraphic{shade}
     initialize_area(\MPpos{b:#1},\MPpos{e:#1}) ;
     linear_shade(pxy,0,.4#2,.9#2) ;
     anchor_area(\MPanchor{b:#1}) ;
   \stopMPpositiongraphic
   \MPpositiongraphic{shade}}

\dosetpositionaction{b:x}{\TableShade{x}{red}}
\dosetpositionaction{b:y}{\TableShade{y}{green}}
\dosetpositionaction{b:z}{\TableShade{z}{blue}}

% and this one doen't

%\definepositionframed[x][background=color,backgroundcolor=red]
%\definepositionframed[y][background=color,backgroundcolor=green]
%\definepositionframed[z][background=color,backgroundcolor=blue]

\starttabel[|c|c|c|]
\GFC[b:y] \cw{this is a small}  \NC       \cw{table}            \NC     in
which we      \NC \FR
\NC       \cw{will demonstrate} \GFC[c:z] \cw{that this}        \GTC[c]
\cw{positioning} \NC \MR
\GSC[a:x] \cw{mechanism also}   \GTC[b]   \cw{works quite well} \NC     in
tables        \NC \LR
\stoptabel

\stoptext

PS. The mp stuff can move to any layer you want
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                                  Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl
                      Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
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