From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Eric S Fraga Subject: Re: ASCII table export should use tabs? Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:40:09 +0100 Message-ID: <87pqpbmvly.fsf@ucl.ac.uk> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=49335 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Q48vw-0003Vo-0I for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 05:40:28 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Q48vu-0005hy-11 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 05:40:23 -0400 Received: from vscane-a2.ucl.ac.uk ([144.82.108.42]:63844) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Q48vt-0005hB-Sy for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 05:40:21 -0400 In-Reply-To: (Samuel Wales's message of "Sun, 27 Mar 2011 12:30:36 -0700") List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Samuel Wales Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Samuel Wales writes: > I wonder if org should export ASCII tables using tabs. > > If I send to this list, I can be confident that everybody will know to > display in a monospace font. That is not true for non-technical > audiences. Yet I think there are times when I want to send ASCII > instead of HTML. At least, I am not confident that /I/ know that HTML > will display correctly. > > Tabs are not a perfect solution, as they will break with long entries. > Still, you can read a broken table with tabs easier than a table > displayed in a proportional font, which I believe most nontechnical > people use. > > What do you think? > > Samuel I don't think Tabs will work well because either the tab positions are unknown (depending on how the document is being read) or the tab positions, if fixed, will be less than optimal for any given table. For most non-technical audiences, I would recommend exporting to either HTML or PDF if you're worried about tables being formatted correctly. I don't send ascii formatted text from org to hardly anybody. If you're sending email, as much as I dislike HTML messages, I do send the odd one using org-mime-org-buffer-htmlize if there is formatting that is critical to the understanding of the document. -- : Eric S Fraga (GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D) in Emacs 24.0.50.1 : using Org-mode version 7.5 (release_7.5.115.g00134.dirty)