Re: org table proposal: merge and split cells in org-tables

[Uwe Brauer <oub@mat.ucm.es>]

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>>> "IR" == Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@posteo.net> writes:

> Uwe Brauer <oub@mat.ucm.es> writes:
>> In a conversation with Ihor Radchenko it was considered as being helpful
>> to provide a table in which cells are merged and split.

> We should consider this idea seriously as this and related features are
> being requested frequently in the community. I recall the following
> contexts:

> - Support merging cells when exporting to LaTeX tables
> - Text filling inside tables

I would suggest that filling, might be the point to start, since this
the lack of this feature is one of the inconvenience of org-tables.

I am sometimes running org-table-wrap 
found in 
https://github.com/analyticd/org-table-wrap-functions.git 

It is nice but takes a long long time to finish.


>> Here is one
>> 
>> +--------+-------------------------------------------------+
>> | Region |                      Sales                      |
>> |        +-------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
>> |        |      Q1     |    Q2     |    Q3     |    Q4     |
>> |        +-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
>> |        | foo   | bar | foo | bar | foo | bar | foo | bar |
>> +--------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
>> | North  | 350   |  46 | 253 |  34 | 234 |  42 | 382 |  68 |
>> +--------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
>> | South  | 462   |  84 | 511 |  78 | 435 |  45 | 534 |  89 |
>> +--------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+

> This essentially suggests supporting table.el syntax natively. Or maybe
> extending it by mixing with native Org tables.

> In terms of syntax, adding cell boundary support might be simply a
> question of allowing +----+ in Org tables. It will not break anything as
> we already parse +-----+ as table.el tables.

> At lower level of org-element representation, we do not need to change
> much either. table-row elements are already not tied to a fixed number
> of cells in every row. And we may extend table-row 'rule type to define
> the "+----+   +   +---+--+" cell boundaries.

> However, in order to support merging cells, one needs to rework Org in a
> number of places. At least:

> 1. org-element parser and interpreter
> 2. org-table.el in its totality
> 3. export backends
> 4. table formulas; in particular, cell references
> 5. update syntax document

Or would leave 4 and 5 out for the moment, since it sounds like a headache
>> Or better

>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> | Region |                      Sales                      |
>> |        ---------------------------------------------------
>> |        |      Q1     |    Q2     |    Q3     |    Q4     |
>> |        ---------------------------------------------------
>> |        | foo   | bar | foo | bar | foo | bar | foo | bar |
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> | North  | 350   |  46 | 253 |  34 | 234 |  42 | 382 |  68 |
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> | South  | 462   |  84 | 511 |  78 | 435 |  45 | 534 |  89 |
>> ------------------------------------------------------------

> This will clash with horizontal-rule syntax. Not acceptable. Also,
> parsing this kind of table will be significantly harder programatically.


Ok.


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