Re: Markdown, tables and CSV

[BP Jonsson <bpjonsson-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 7595 bytes --]

I like the idea of overloading image syntax for includes, but I'm a little
concerned how format recognition by extension would work out in practice.
Most extensions that would likely come up map only to one fiile format but
some file file formats map to multiple extensions, notably markdown, and
for backwards compatibility's sake one would have to assume that an
'unknown' extension is an image. However now that image elements take
attributes it would be possible to use an "include" pseudo-attribute with
the same formats as used for the --from option as values, including
extensions if any. I would guess that a filter implementing that would not
be too hard to implement in Haskell, which can call pandoc as a library.
Shelling out to pandoc from python or perl would be possible. Also the
include would probably have to be an image element as only content since
the included document would consist of block elements.

/bpj

fredag 20 maj 2016 skrev John Gabriele <jgabriele-97jfqw80gc6171pxa8y+qA@public.gmane.org>:

> Hi Martin,
>
> There's also [issue 553](https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/issues/553).
>
> Personally, I think I like (from that issue thread) anton-k's original
> idea:
>
>     ![an image](foo.jpg)
>
>     ![an include](foo.txt)
>
>     ![a csv to be rendered as a table](foo.csv)
>
> (that is, based on filename extension)
>
> Those seem sensible, symmetrical, easy to remember, and I think fit well
> with what pandoc already does (`![]()` is already like an include).
>
> As for a syntax to allow writing your csv data right into your md file,
> ... Pandoc already supports a generous number of table formats that are
> pretty easy to type. And for larger tables that you might be tempted to
> copy/paste in, might be better easier to bang-include them (as in,
> `![]()`), rather than muck up your pretty markdown file with a giant bunch
> of csv data. :)
>
> -- John
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, May 20, 2016, at 05:38 AM, Martin Fenner wrote:
>
> Dear group,
>
> The topic of CSV support in Pandoc has come up several times on this list,
> includes this thread from 2014:
> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/pandoc-discuss/kBdJU_JktzI
>
> Since last year I work for an organisation that frequently deals with
> tabular data (and helped organize CSVconf earlier this month), and I have
> done some thinking on how CSV could fit into Pandoc. I see two important
> use cases:
>
> * CSV reader that converts to tables in HTML, docx, latex, etc.
> * CSV has a format to describe tables in markdown
>
> For the first use case I wrote a hack for the Jekyll blogging platform
> this week that turns CSV files into markdown grid tables format that is
> then processed by Pandoc (https://github.com/datacite/jekyll-csvy). I
> would rather use Pandoc with a CSV reader, but my Haskell isn't good enough
> to write one. But for now I can generate blog posts directly from CSV
> files. Other people have done similar things with Pandoc and CSV.
>
> For the second use case I see a clear advantage of CSV over the various
> attempts to format tables in markdown (simple_tables, multiline_tables,
> grid_tables, pipe_tables). Everyone (and many tools) understands the CSV
> format, and you can do most of the things with CSV that the other table
> formats allow (multi-column formats and column alignment are a bit
> trickier). This has been done before using Pandoc filters, but I think a
> Pandoc "csv_tables" Pandoc extension would make this easier for the casual
> user. Using the grid_tables example from the Pandoc documentation, this
> could look like this:
>
> : Sample csv table.
>
> ,,,
> Fruit,Price,Advantages
> Bananas,$1.34,- built-in wrapper\n- bright color
> Oranges,$2.10, - cures scurvy\n- tasty
> ,,,
>
> I like three commas on a new line to indicate the start and end of a
> table, but that is of course open for discussion. The format is much easier
> to read and edit for humans compared to grid tables, the only tricky bit is
> maybe the \n for multiline columns. I would think we could add metadata to
> the fenced table blog similar to code blocks, e.g.
>
> ,,,{ #mytable .numberRows }
>
> One challenge with CSV is that it is an ill-defined format somewhat
> similar to markdown before CommonMark. It may make things easier to only
> support a specific CSV variant (e.g. comma as separator, header required,
> comment lines not allowed).
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Best,
>
> Martin
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "pandoc-discuss" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to pandoc-discuss+unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org
> To post to this group, send email to pandoc-discuss-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pandoc-discuss/20BF19CB-A2B0-4B19-A749-D750CDD89736%40martinfenner.org
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pandoc-discuss/20BF19CB-A2B0-4B19-A749-D750CDD89736%40martinfenner.org?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
> .
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>
>
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "pandoc-discuss" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to pandoc-discuss+unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org
> To post to this group, send email to pandoc-discuss-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pandoc-discuss/1463766905.1918988.613990665.6CD67781%40webmail.messagingengine.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pandoc-discuss/1463766905.1918988.613990665.6CD67781%40webmail.messagingengine.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
> .
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.



-- 

------------------------------
SavedURI :Show URLShow URLSavedURI :
SavedURI :Hide URLHide URLSavedURI :
https://mail.google.com/_/scs/mail-static/_/js/k=gmail.main.sv.G3GZFwvcniQ.O/m=m_i,t,it/am=fUAcTAoZawdGHAZ2YD-g9N_f7LL4CX7WlSgHQKgABHaCv9kToPiBD8qOMw/rt=h/d=1/rs=AItRSTO5CF1YB_frDRXLXTeUsQ1zItcBvwhttps://mail.google.com/_/scs/mail-static/_/js/k=gmail.main.sv.G3GZFwvcniQ.O/m=m_i,t,it/am=fUAcTAoZawdGHAZ2YD-g9N_f7LL4CX7WlSgHQKgABHaCv9kToPiBD8qOMw/rt=h/d=1/rs=AItRSTO5CF1YB_frDRXLXTeUsQ1zItcBvw
<https://mail.google.com/_/scs/mail-static/_/js/k=gmail.main.sv.G3GZFwvcniQ.O/m=m_i,t,it/am=fUAcTAoZawdGHAZ2YD-g9N_f7LL4CX7WlSgHQKgABHaCv9kToPiBD8qOMw/rt=h/d=1/rs=AItRSTO5CF1YB_frDRXLXTeUsQ1zItcBvw>
<https://mail.google.com/_/scs/mail-static/_/js/k=gmail.main.sv.G3GZFwvcniQ.O/m=m_i,t,it/am=fUAcTAoZawdGHAZ2YD-g9N_f7LL4CX7WlSgHQKgABHaCv9kToPiBD8qOMw/rt=h/d=1/rs=AItRSTO5CF1YB_frDRXLXTeUsQ1zItcBvw>
------------------------------

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "pandoc-discuss" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to pandoc-discuss+unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org
To post to this group, send email to pandoc-discuss-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFF+G/Ez6ZCGd0@public.gmane.org
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pandoc-discuss/CAFC_yuQe9oFtnkjLYfAYgAqgzYrM6XBZrBPOHui%3DHG14U4X2Zg%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 15504 bytes --]