starttabulate questions

starttabulate questions

[frantisek holop]

good evening,

all the examples in the manual use \NC before \NR
is this a necessity?  what is the logics behind this?
is it more like an ending to the previous \NC ?

\starttabulate[|l|l|l|]
\NC A. \NC This Perfect Day           \NC Ira Levin           \NC \NR
\NC B. \NC Opstaan op Zaterdag        \NC Jan Gerhart Toonder \NC \NR
\NC C. \NC Tot waar zal ik je brengen \NC Anton Koolhaas      \NC \NR
\NC D. \NC The City And The Stars     \NC Arthur Clarke       \NC \NR
\stoptabulate


please consider the following minimal example:

\starttext
\starttabulate
\NC column 1
\NC
\input tufte
\input tufte
\input tufte
\NC \NR
\stoptabulate

\starttabulate
\NC column 1
\NC
\input tufte
\input tufte
\NC \NR
\stoptabulate
\stoptext

if i don't put something between the two tabulates, 
they behave just like one, as if i didn't seperate them,
they show up on the same page.  am i missing something?

-f
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Re: starttabulate questions

[Aditya Mahajan]

On Tue, 25 Sep 2007, frantisek holop wrote:

> good evening,
>
> all the examples in the manual use \NC before \NR
> is this a necessity?

Yes.

> what is the logics behind this?
> is it more like an ending to the previous \NC ?

It is for historic reason. Originally, there was table (\starttable) 
which is syntax sugar and some extensions over the TaBlE macro package 
by Michael Wichura. In the TaBlE macro, the rule between the column is 
a column in iteself. So, in table macros

\starttable[|l|l|l|]
  \NC 1 \NC 2 \NC 3 \NC \NR
\stoptable

will expand to something like

\halign{ <preamble> \cr
{
<first column separator> & 1 & <1-2 col sep> & 2 & <2-3> col sep> & 3
& <last col sep> \cr
}

On the other hand, if you needed rules (lines) between the columns, 
you replace \NC by \VC,

\starttable[|l|l|l|]
\VC 1 \VC 2 \VC 3 \VC \NR
\stoptable

In this case, the inter-column separator in the \halign are replaced 
by the appropriate macros for rules. In this case, the last \VC is 
needed to indicate that you want a rule at the end. And if you do not 
want a rule, you need to indicate this by a \NC.

Tabulate started as a mechanism to replace table, so the syntax was 
kept the same. Right now, tabulate does not implement vertical rules, 
so in the context of tabulate, having a last \NC seems redundant. As 
far as I understand, tabulate is supposed to ultimately backward 
compatible with table, and features will be added according to user 
demands or Hans needs.


> \starttabulate[|l|l|l|]
> \NC A. \NC This Perfect Day           \NC Ira Levin           \NC \NR
> \NC B. \NC Opstaan op Zaterdag        \NC Jan Gerhart Toonder \NC \NR
> \NC C. \NC Tot waar zal ik je brengen \NC Anton Koolhaas      \NC \NR
> \NC D. \NC The City And The Stars     \NC Arthur Clarke       \NC \NR
> \stoptabulate
>
>
> please consider the following minimal example:
>
> \starttext
> \starttabulate
> \NC column 1
> \NC
> \input tufte
> \input tufte
> \input tufte
> \NC \NR
> \stoptabulate
>
> \starttabulate
> \NC column 1
> \NC
> \input tufte
> \input tufte
> \NC \NR
> \stoptabulate
> \stoptext
>
> if i don't put something between the two tabulates,
> they behave just like one, as if i didn't seperate them,
> they show up on the same page.  am i missing something?

Why do you expect them to be on different pages? If you want vertical 
space between the tables, you can add a \blank in between the tables.

Aditya
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Re: starttabulate questions

[frantisek holop]

hmm, on Mon, Sep 24, 2007 at 07:52:00PM -0400, Aditya Mahajan said that
> Tabulate started as a mechanism to replace table, so the syntax was 
> kept the same. Right now, tabulate does not implement vertical rules, 
> so in the context of tabulate, having a last \NC seems redundant. As 
> far as I understand, tabulate is supposed to ultimately backward 
> compatible with table, and features will be added according to user 
> demands or Hans needs.

thanks for the great explanation.

anybody writing a context book by a chance for publishing? :D

> Why do you expect them to be on different pages? If you want vertical 
> space between the tables, you can add a \blank in between the tables.

well, we could turn around that questin, couldn't we?
why would i except them to be glued together?  it's another object,
why are they "connected"?  i am not saying there should be a default
whitespace between them, can be 0pt, but why are they glued together?

-f
-- 
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Re: starttabulate questions

[Aditya Mahajan]

On Tue, 25 Sep 2007, frantisek holop wrote:

> hmm, on Mon, Sep 24, 2007 at 07:52:00PM -0400, Aditya Mahajan said that
>> Tabulate started as a mechanism to replace table, so the syntax was
>> kept the same. Right now, tabulate does not implement vertical rules,
>> so in the context of tabulate, having a last \NC seems redundant. As
>> far as I understand, tabulate is supposed to ultimately backward
>> compatible with table, and features will be added according to user
>> demands or Hans needs.
>
> thanks for the great explanation.
>
> anybody writing a context book by a chance for publishing? :D

I think that the book has been in the planning stage for a long time. 
The trouble with writing a book is that it takes a long time. I have 
started a series of articles in Tugboat on context, so I shall have 
enough material for a book in ... eh ... about 5 years :)

Aditya
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Re: starttabulate questions

[Idris Samawi Hamid]

On Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:11:46 -0600, Aditya Mahajan <adityam@umich.edu>  
wrote:

>> anybody writing a context book by a chance for publishing? :D
>
> I think that the book has been in the planning stage for a long time.
> The trouble with writing a book is that it takes a long time. I have
> started a series of articles in Tugboat on context, so I shall have
> enough material for a book in ... eh ... about 5 years :)

Hopefully in a couple of years, once mkiv is stable, we should be done by  
then I hope. Coauthors welcome, so your tugboat articles could help... ;-)

Best
Idris

-- 
Professor Idris Samawi Hamid
Department of Philosophy
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523

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