Multi-column spanning cells

Multi-column spanning cells

[ivo welch]

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apologies if this has been discussed and dismissed, but maybe it helps.

I have seen at least one markdown table format that I liked and that pretty 
much covers almost everything that I need.  I did not invent this!  I found 
it am showing the markdown text here:


^ h1-left  ^  h1-center  ^  h1-right ^    h1-left-3col   ^^^  h1-center-3col 
 ^^^  h1-right-3col     ^^^
| l1       |      c1     |        r3 |  c4  |  c5  |  c6  |  c7  |  c8  | 
 c9  |  c10  |  c11  |  c12  |
| l1       |      c1     |        r3 |        m4-6       |||        m7-9   
   |||      m10-12        |||
| l1       |      c1     |        r3 | m4-6              |||             m7-
9 |||      m10-12        |||



The markdown code seems fairly easy to understand.  When a cell is followed 
by consecutive cell dividers, the intent is to merge this cell to its 
left. If an empty cell is desired instead, a space would have to be 
inserted.  Left/Center/Right flush is determined by the spaces starting 
and ending the cell.  The result can be viewed here:

http://cookbook.tips/!julia/doku.php?id=table


For convenience, here is a png image thereof:

[image: mdtable.png]

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Re: Multi-column spanning cells

[ivo welch]

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forgot the important question.  does someone know of an extension to pandoc 
that implements this?

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Re: Multi-column spanning cells

[ivo welch]

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so I am now contemplating implementing this kind of tabular with 
multi-column cells myself.  My perl is pretty good.   (I won't have time to 
learn haskell.)  The format spec itself is reasonably simple.  I should be 
able to do this in an afternoon.

so, some simple questions:

* any reason why this would not make a good format for tables with 
multi-column cells?  has this been discussed and discarded?

* is there broader interest in this than just me?  if so, is there an 
"easy" way to hook my perl preprocessor into the pandoc flow?  I would need 
a working minimalist example of something like it.

* I can output conditional text (tabular for latex, table for html).  I 
won't be able to do other output formats, like powerpoint.  I could 
preprocess with conditional text.  Alternatively, is there one minimalist 
working example that also shows how to learn output format?

advice appreciated.

/iaw

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Re: Multi-column spanning cells

[mb21]

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This is definitely on the TODO-list for native 
pandoc: https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/issues/1024 (and has been for a 
while).

Pandoc supports several kinds of table syntaxes (see the manual). The one 
that's probably easiest to extend for cell-spans is grid-tables, see 
e.g. https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/issues/1024#issuecomment-305434114

Since you asked for input: personally, I find the pipe-table-inspired 
syntax you posted a lot harder to read (although it may be easier to 
write). Of course, do whatever suits your needs best ;-)


On Sunday, May 12, 2019 at 8:12:12 AM UTC+2, ivo welch wrote:
>
>
> so I am now contemplating implementing this kind of tabular with 
> multi-column cells myself.  My perl is pretty good.   (I won't have time to 
> learn haskell.)  The format spec itself is reasonably simple.  I should be 
> able to do this in an afternoon.
>
> so, some simple questions:
>
> * any reason why this would not make a good format for tables with 
> multi-column cells?  has this been discussed and discarded?
>
> * is there broader interest in this than just me?  if so, is there an 
> "easy" way to hook my perl preprocessor into the pandoc flow?  I would need 
> a working minimalist example of something like it.
>
> * I can output conditional text (tabular for latex, table for html).  I 
> won't be able to do other output formats, like powerpoint.  I could 
> preprocess with conditional text.  Alternatively, is there one minimalist 
> working example that also shows how to learn output format?
>
> advice appreciated.
>
> /iaw
>
>

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Re: Multi-column spanning cells

[Ivo Welch]

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thanks, mb.

yes, I think you are right.  this format is easier to write align, but 
perhaps more difficult to read especially when not properly aligned.  (A 
formatter that aligns could help.)

I also think now that default formats at the top of each column could be 
nice, too.  I have seen ':---' and ':---:' and '---:' be used.  it could be 
even more useful with an embedded string format, such as ':--%.3f--' as the 
first table line.  This could then be handled with a '|:' instead of '|'.  
If there is no format string, '|:' is interpreted as before.

/iaw

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Re: Multi-column spanning cells

[Daniel Staal]

On 5/12/19 2:12 AM, ivo welch wrote:
> * any reason why this would not make a good format for tables with 
> multi-column cells?  has this been discussed and discarded?

This particular format?  It would be very easy to mess up and and hard 
to spot errors with.

The general concept?  Mostly there's been discussion about different 
formats, and pros and cons of each.

> * is there broader interest in this than just me?  if so, is there an 
> "easy" way to hook my perl preprocessor into the pandoc flow?  I would 
> need a working minimalist example of something like it.

There's interest in multi-column cells in tables.  ;)

Daniel T. Staal

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Re: Multi-column spanning cells

[ivo welch]

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My table multi column filter works great exporting to html and pdf, but is there a way to tell the PowerPoint output that this is what it should do?  This would be heaven.