[Zope] Alternate HTML Table implementation in STX

Robert Rockwell RobertR@intouchcorp.com
Tue, 23 Apr 2002 12:14:14 -0400


Andreas,

My intent here is handling columnar data, so colspan and rowspan would be
rarely needed.  I'm sure there would be a tidy way to establish a syntax
that supported spanning, were it desirable.

As I read through the various documentation on STX, the idea seems to be to
create a source format that is as close to readable as the rendered format.
Given this concept, I can see the reasoning behind the existing way of
describing tables using ascii drawings of the table.  Nonetheless, as with
most technology STX constantly proves trickier to implement that expected.  

e.g.
1. In Zope, failing to properly close the table breaks the entire page,
thereby losing all access via a Wiki interface.
2. Entries within the table are still subject to STX rules, with sometimes
strange results.  For example, a cell that contains a only number will be
converted to a 1 since it is interpreted as an ordered list element.

Also, my earlier suggestion using a DTML tag is bad form for STX.  Maybe I
should have said something like:

[TABLE=1, Lecture Halls]
"Room", "Capacity" ,"Sound".
"B-100", "200" ,"Yes".

which would render like:

|-----------------------------|
| Room   | Capacity | Sound   |
|-----------------------------|
| B-100  |   200    | Yes     |
|-----------------------------|
Table 1. Lecture Halls

Anyhow, I am not proposing a standard, but trying to find out an easy way to
do this with STX or move on.

Thanks in advance,
--ira (via Bob's account)

-----Original Message-----
From: Andreas Jung [mailto:andreas@zope.com]
Sent: Friday, April 19, 2002 11:51 AM
To: Robert Rockwell; zope@zope.org
Subject: Re: [Zope] Alternate HTML Table implementation in STX


How do you handle colspan and rowspan?

-aj
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Rockwell" <RobertR@intouchcorp.com>
To: <zope@zope.org>
Sent: Friday, April 19, 2002 11:44
Subject: [Zope] Alternate HTML Table implementation in STX


> Hello,
>
> This question is motivated by attempts to maintain some tabular lists in
> Zwiki (v0.9.6 on Zope 2.5).
>
> I've noticed that HTML tables can be described in wiki's using an STX
> convention involving dashes (-) and vertical bars (|).  Although this
> doesn't require HTML knowledge, it certainly requires skill on the
author's
> part to get it right.  For simple tablular lists of data, the extra
> flexibility of this convention is more of an obstacle.
>
> Does anyone know of simpler convention for describing columns of data?
I'm
> thinking more along the lines of something like (now entering dream mode)
>
> <DTML-TABLE>
> Name; email; phone
> Joe Smith; js@nowhere.comm; 555-1111
> Sarah Conner; sc@adomain.nett; 555-5555
> </DTML-TABLE>
>
> which would render something like
>
> |-------------------------------------------|
> | Name         | email           | phone    |
> |-------------------------------------------|
> | Joe Smith    | js@nowhere.comm | 555-1111 |
> |-------------------------------------------|
> | Sarah Conner | sc@adomain.nett | 555-5555 |
> |-------------------------------------------|
>
> People have an easier time grasping the concept of editing comma delimited
> lists than using the ascii drawing skills.
>
> Due to constraints on my time, I would rather not do this with tables and
> sql.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> --ira (via Bob's account)
>
>
>
>
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