Re: TABLE: 'distance' override?

[Johannes Graumann <johannes_graumann@web.de>]

After sleeping on this I realize that a more mechanistical answer to this 
may be more interesting.
When coding a table in LaTeX with 'booktabs' as the one shown in
http://www.idyll.org:8081/JohSite/context/table1.jpg/view, booktabs mainly
provides the commands '\bottomrule' and '\toprule', creating the heavier
start and end lines. The interrupted lines separating the table header from
the table body are coded explicitly (with a command I'm not sure is even
provided by 'booktabs'): '\cmidrule(r){1-1}\cmidrule(lr){2-2}\cmidrule(l
{3-3}' for a three-columned table. Bottomline is that while with the
distance solution in ConTeXt natural TABLEs the whole table is modified, a
solution like this only modifies the horizontal line targeted - and that
very flexible: the firs '\cmidrule' call anly shortens the rule on the
right ('(r)'), the second one on both sides ('(lr)') and the last one on
the left ('(l)').

In order to emulate my table style with TABLE there would be 4 things
necessary:
1) possibility to have top- and bottomframe formated independently
(different width - top heavy, bottom light; one continuous, one interrupted
(see 2.))
2) a new frame mode ('int'?) which interrupts a 'bottomframe=int' between
table columns with an automatism recognizing whether this is the first or
last column and only shortening the line on the right or left respectively.
3) Booktabs also provides an '\addlinespace' command for groupseparation ...
see separation between first and second body line in
http://www.idyll.org:8081/JohSite/context/table1.jpg/view
4) When defining tables in LaTeX, a definition like \tabular{@{}lll@{}}
yields horizontal lines terminating on the left and right flush with the
table content and not reaching to a column separation border beyond that.

If you wonder where I got all theses crazy ideas ;0):
http://www.tug.org/tex-archive/info/german/tabsatz/tabsatz.pdf by Axel
Reichert is the inspiring document (sorry - German only).

I'm not asking for this to be implemented, but I believe ConTeXt would
benefit from this.

Joh


Hans Hagen wrote:

> Johannes Graumann wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> In my quest for tables similar to what the 'booktabs' package in LaTeX
>>   
> what does booktab do then
> 
> Hans
> 
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