bug#69454: Not possible to insert an empty vtable

[Joost Kremers <joostkremers@fastmail.fm>]

Hi Adam,

On Tue, Apr 30 2024, Adam Porter wrote:
> Well, I'm not sure how useful it would be to calculate the widths of columns and
> show them if there are no data objects to render in them; especially, if the
> columns have to be recalculated and the table has to be re-rendered as soon as
> objects are shown in it.

Yes, that's what I meant when I said the code using vtable.el would have to take
that into consideration. In my case, I do that by leaving only the last column's
width undefined.

>  It would seem to merely serve as confirmation of which
> columns are defined in the vtable.

Yup, that is exactly right, but I think there are circumstances in which that
may be useful. Specifically, cases where the data being displayed is generated
by the user. (Think database front-end, even though I realise vtable.el isn't
suitable for displaying extremely large amounts of data. In my use-case, the
amount of data is manageable, though.)

> IOW, it seems that, if there are no objects to show, it might be just as good to
> short-circuit the columns and just insert some kind of "[no objects]" string.
>
> I don't have a strong opinion on this, though.  I think I would generally favor
> whichever approach required the smallest change to the code.

In that case, go with your suggestion, because mine certainly would require
bigger changes. 😀 


-- 
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments