emacs-orgmode@gnu.org archives
 help / color / mirror / code / Atom feed

From: TEC <tecosaur@gmail.com>
To: org-mode-email <emacs-orgmode@gnu.org>
Subject: Tables: missing multi-col/row syntax
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2020 02:14:33 +0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <87k0v361x9.fsf@gmail.com> (raw)

Hi all,

This is a pretty major 'feature request', but I think also an 
important
one.

When developing large tables, it can often be /necessary/ to start 
using
multi-column/row cells for clarity, and sensible exporting 
results.

As far as I am aware, in Org does not currently have any 
multi-col/row
syntax. The only viable method seems to be re-implementing the 
table
using export blocks in every backend you may want to export to (in 
my
case, usually TeX + HTML). This is clumsy, difficult to work with, 
and
could be avoided should org gain support for multi-col/row syntax.

I appreciate that this would constitute a major change both the 
Org's
syntax and the codebase, but I believe such a change is warranted 
by the
advantages it would provide.

Both how this can be implemented while minimising/eliminating the 
chance
of breaking well-formed current table elements, and what syntax 
may be
both acceptable and seem sensible to use.

I would anticipate such a feature working by designating two 
characters
to indicate "add row" and "add column". For example "|" and "-". 
These
characters would take affect when /immediately following/ (no 
space) a
cell separator ("|"), and designate the dimensions of the top 
right cell.

Example:
| a | b | c |
|---+---+---|
| a | - | | |
| - | b | . |
| . | | | c |

Would be interpreted just as any current table is.

However,

| hello | there | you  |
|-------+-------+------|
|| two column   | cell |

Contains a 2x1 cell.

| a little | test |
|----------+------|
|- hello   | hi   |
| two row  | you  |

Contains a 1x2 cell. In a more complex example:

| a | b | c |
|---+---+---|
||-- hi | a |
| two x | . |
| three | b |
| c | - | . |

Contains a 2x3 cell.

This is just the first syntax that comes to mind, but hopefully 
the
general form of this idea seems viable.

All the best,

Timothy.

next             reply	other threads:[~2020-11-02 18:37 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 8+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2020-11-02 18:14 TEC [this message]
2020-11-02 19:45 ` Tables: missing multi-col/row syntax Tom Gillespie
2020-11-02 19:46   ` TEC
2020-11-04  9:23   ` Christian Moe
2020-11-04  9:28     ` TEC
2020-11-03 10:08 ` David Rogers
2020-11-03 10:35   ` TEC
2020-11-04  2:45     ` David Rogers

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

  List information: https://www.orgmode.org/

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=87k0v361x9.fsf@gmail.com \
    --to=tecosaur@gmail.com \
    --cc=emacs-orgmode@gnu.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link

Code repositories for project(s) associated with this public inbox

	https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs/org-mode.git

This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for read-only IMAP folder(s) and NNTP newsgroup(s).