Column cell number in natural tables

Column cell number in natural tables

[nico]

Hello,

Is it possible to explicitely set the column of the cell defined by a \bTD  
... \eTD? I mean that, within a row, it is the number of previous defined  
cells that determine the current column cell position. What I would like  
is to be able to omit intermediate empty cells by explicitely setting the  
column of the defined cell.

I thought that maybe the option "n" could do that, but it does not work as  
I expected. Here is an example of a table I'd like to be able to write (of  
course the "n" option can be replaced by anything else):

\bTABLE
\bTR\bTD[n=3] a3 \eTD\bTD[n=6] a6 \eTD\eTR
\bTR\bTD b1 \eTD\bTD b2 \eTD\bTD b3 \eTD\bTD b4 \eTD\eTR
\bTR\bTD c1 \eTD\bTD c2 \eTD\bTD c3 \eTD\bTD c4 \eTD\eTR
\bTR\bTD d1 \eTD\bTD[n=5] d5 \eTD\bTD[n=7] d7 \eTD\eTR
\bTR\bTD e1 \eTD\bTD[n=3] e3 \eTD\eTR
\eTABLE

On benefit of this feature is that it would make the CALS table model  
(http://www.oasis-open.org/specs/a502.htm) mapping to context quite  
easier, especially when the table contains row or column spanning.

Regards,
BG

Re: Column cell number in natural tables

[Hans Hagen]

nico wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Is it possible to explicitely set the column of the cell defined by a \bTD  
> ... \eTD? I mean that, within a row, it is the number of previous defined  
> cells that determine the current column cell position. What I would like  
> is to be able to omit intermediate empty cells by explicitely setting the  
> column of the defined cell.
>
> I thought that maybe the option "n" could do that, but it does not work as  
> I expected. Here is an example of a table I'd like to be able to write (of  
> course the "n" option can be replaced by anything else):
>
> \bTABLE
> \bTR\bTD[n=3] a3 \eTD\bTD[n=6] a6 \eTD\eTR
> \bTR\bTD b1 \eTD\bTD b2 \eTD\bTD b3 \eTD\bTD b4 \eTD\eTR
> \bTR\bTD c1 \eTD\bTD c2 \eTD\bTD c3 \eTD\bTD c4 \eTD\eTR
> \bTR\bTD d1 \eTD\bTD[n=5] d5 \eTD\bTD[n=7] d7 \eTD\eTR
> \bTR\bTD e1 \eTD\bTD[n=3] e3 \eTD\eTR
> \eTABLE
>
> On benefit of this feature is that it would make the CALS table model  
> (http://www.oasis-open.org/specs/a502.htm) mapping to context quite  
> easier, especially when the table contains row or column spanning.
>   
ah, this should work indeed, but i never tested more than one column skipped, i'll send you a small patch to test 

Hans 

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