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From: Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com>
To: Timothy <tecosaur@gmail.com>
Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Syntax Proposal: Multi-line Table Cells/Text Wrapping
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2021 14:50:07 +1100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <87a6qz94sd.fsf@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <87k0q3yj26.fsf@gmail.com>


Timothy <tecosaur@gmail.com> writes:

> Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> In principal, it wold be great to be able to support multi-row columns.
>> However, I'm not sure how easily this can actually be implemented in a
>> consistent and maintainable manner.
>
> Mmmm, this of feels like something where you'll quickly learn how hard
> it is/isn't when you try to implement it.
>
>> From watching these discussions in the past, I think the big stumbling
>> block is how easily multi-row columns can be added and maintained in the
>> various export formats. Some are easy, like HTML, but others are less
>> so. In particular, I know from my many years working with Latex,
>> multi-row columns are not straight-forward. There are lots of edge cases
>> to deal with and it is hard to get a consistent result programatically.
>>
>> Proposals like this one can seem simple and straight-forward on the
>> surface. However, implementation is another matter. All of the exporters
>> will need to be updated to handle this new syntax and it will probably
>> take a fair bit of work to handle it correctly in just plain org files
>> (formatting, highlighting etc).
>
> Currently if you were to try this content with the proposed syntax,
> content is just put in the top left cell of the group. This seems like a
> reasonable fallback to me. Then for HTML we have colspan/rowspan, and
> for LaTeX there's \multicolumn and with the multirow package \multirow.
>
> FWIW just formatting would need to be updated for Org files.
> Highlighting is fine as is.
>
>> If this was something people were prepared to put the time into
>> implementing, I think it must be done in a completely separate feature
>> branch and would need to be fully tested (including all back end
>> exporters) before it can be merged into the mainline branch. It would
>> also be important to profile and ensure it does not have significant
>> impact on performance.
>>
>> I am a little concerned about the expansion and addition of features in
>> org mode when there seems to already be a challenge with respect to
>> maintenance and bug fixing. Personally, I would prefer an org mode which
>> is consistent and reliable over one with large numbers of features that
>> is less stable and slower.
>
> I appreciate this concern, but I do think that the ability to have
> multi-col/row cells is invaluable in many large tables, and so would be
> a very good addition to Org.

We can debate how easy or hard this is to implement indefinitely. What
is needed is for someone to implement a working version which is
consistent, reliable and provides expected results across all export
environments.

The devil is in the details and I suspect that once you start trying to
implement the feature is when many of those challenges become clear.

My view is 'go for it'. Just create a new feature branch and implment
the functionality in that branch. We can then try using it and see where
it works and where it doesn't. Once this is done, a call can be made as
to whether it should be implemented in the main code base
-- 
Tim Cross


  reply	other threads:[~2021-03-19  3:55 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 33+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2021-03-17 20:29 Syntax Proposal: Multi-line Table Cells/Text Wrapping Atlas Cove
2021-03-17 21:02 ` Daniele Nicolodi
2021-03-17 22:07 ` Juan Manuel Macías
2021-03-18 13:38   ` Atlas Cove
2021-03-18 14:04     ` Daniele Nicolodi
2021-03-18 15:15     ` Juan Manuel Macías
2021-03-18 14:19 ` Maxim Nikulin
2021-03-18 14:26 ` Timothy
2021-03-18 14:31   ` Atlas Cove
2021-03-18 21:58     ` Tim Cross
2021-03-18 22:41       ` Juan Manuel Macías
2021-03-19  8:08         ` tomas
2021-03-19  8:44           ` Juan Manuel Macías
2021-03-19  8:53             ` tomas
2021-03-19  9:22               ` Juan Manuel Macías
2021-03-19 10:14                 ` tomas
2021-03-19 10:53                   ` Juan Manuel Macías
2021-03-19 11:08                     ` Juan Manuel Macías
2021-03-19 13:43                     ` tomas
2021-03-19 15:07                       ` Juan Manuel Macías
2021-03-20 22:49         ` Samuel Wales
2021-03-21  8:43           ` Juan Manuel Macías
2021-03-19  2:27       ` Timothy
2021-03-19  3:50         ` Tim Cross [this message]
2021-03-19  4:02           ` Timothy
2021-03-19 13:33       ` Eric S Fraga
2021-03-19 21:33         ` Tim Cross
2021-03-20  9:19           ` Eric S Fraga
2021-03-20 10:40           ` Juan Manuel Macías
2021-03-20 13:41         ` Andreas Eder
2021-03-20 22:06           ` Tim Cross
2021-03-22 10:54             ` Eric S Fraga
2021-04-01  6:15       ` Tom Gillespie

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