Re: Feature request: shrink according to alignment (was Re: Org table columns without width cookies get shrunk on TAB)

[Julius Dittmar <Julius.Dittmar@gmx.de>]

Am 19.02.2018 um 10:58 schrieb Nicolas Goaziou:
> Julius Dittmar <Julius.Dittmar@gmx.de> writes:
>> I think what the OP really would like is something like this: remove
>> leading whitespace until everything can be displayed or no more leading
>> whitespace remains, then truncate at the end if necessary. That way as
>> much meaningful contents as possible is displayed. At least that's what
>> I would wish in this situation.
> 
> I understand the idea, but the implementation seems tricky. It means Org
> may sometimes have to hide characters on both sides of a field. and
> sometimes not. It doesn't sound visually appealing.
> 
> I may be wide off the mark, tho. Do you have some specifications in
> mind, or at least some examples?

Up to the moment I read the original post I wasn't even aware any table
cell width restricting syntax exists, so I don't have any full-fledged
examples. Not even half-working ones.

What I think this was about: Assume, the following table is set up for
right-aligned output (that's one of the things I don't know how to do,
but that's fine with me):

| a very long entry which enforces a long table cell |
|                            a moderately long entry |
|                                      a short entry |

Assume further that this table is to be displayed showing only 19
characters. As I understand the original post, the outcome at the moment
would be something like :


| a very long entr... |
|                 ... |
|                 ... |

What I would prefer is:

| a very long entr... |
| a moderately lon... |
|       a short entry |

This does not really mean cutting on both ends, at least not more than
org already does. Org already does add or subtract leading or trailing
whitespace as needed. The change I'd love would spell something like
"first remove all whitespace, then cut (at the end) to length if needed,
and then add whitespace to archieve the defined alignment".

Regards,
Julius