On Wed, 11 May 2011, Simon Bull wrote:
> Thanks for your comments Michel.
>
> In reply to the points you raise:
>
>
> Regarding complexity:
> It is not clear to me whether folks are objecting to _parsing_ complexity or
> *reading/writing* complexity. Subjectively I don't think the example is
> difficult to read; it couldn't be much simpler. So I will assume that
> people are concerned about parsing complexity. On this I cannot comment
> except to say that I believe reading/writing considerations should drive the
> specification which should drive the implementation. Implementation
> considerations should not drive the formulation of the specification except
> where some absolute technical limitation dictates otherwise.
>
>
> Regarding spacing:
> Firstly may I say that I do believe good spacing is good practice for
> tables.
> >From my original post...
> >It is the _visual alignment_ of terms into rows and columns that enables a
> reader to recognise a table.
> >Without any recognisable alignment, a reader sees a jumbled "cloud" of
> terms
> "good" doesn't have to mean "perfect", however.
>
> Secondly, as an author I take pride in producing beautiful documents. If a
> document looks a mess then the author looks careless, lazy and less
> credible. Additionally, from JG's introduction at Daring Fireball:
> >The overriding design goal for Markdown’s formatting syntax is to make it
> as readable as possible.
> >The idea is that a Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is,
> as plain text,
>
> A markdown document should be *publishable* _as-is_. Wobbly mis-aligned
> tables do not make publishable documents in any profession as far as I know.
>
>
> Regarding ease of editing :
> The difficult with inserting text into a column is a general problem with
> text editing tools and table formats in general. It is not a specific
> problem with the proposed table syntax. Moreover, various text editors do
> support a "block" or "column" select feature which enables the author to
> select, copy, cut and paste columns (or blocks) of text. This editor
> feature facilitates exactly the kind of operation you mentioned.
>
> That aside, the proposed table syntax supports a more trivial (lazy) method
> of inserting text into the middle of a column in a few seconds, like this:
>
> Before:
>
> People Homeland Tongue
> ====================================
> Elves Rivendell, Quenya,
> Mirkwood, Sindarin,
> Lorien Nandorin
>
> Dwarves Erebor Khuzdul
>
> Hobbits The Shire, Westron
> Breeland
>
>
> After:
>
> People Homeland Tongue
> ====================================
> Elves Rivendell, Quenya,
> Telerin, <--- inserted text
> Mirkwood, Sindarin,
> Lorien Nandorin
>
> Dwarves Erebor Khuzdul
>
> Hobbits The Shire, Westron
> Breeland
>
>
>
> Regarding cell alignment :
> In my original post I wrote this
> > The author has already provided the desired text alignment in the original
>
> >(mono spaced) markdown text.
> >
> >It is therefore plausible for a parser to derive cell alignment by
> comparing
> > the amount of leading and trailing white space in each table cell of each
> row
> > and each column.
>
> I am the first to concede that this would require near-perfect spacing in
> the document, and would be very hard to implement. It is therefore unlikely
> that anyone would bother to implement it.
>
> However, there's no reason not to include MMD-style cell alignment
> meta-characters in the specification as a more practical short-cut if that
> is what people want.
>
>
> Thanks again for your comments Michel -- I hope I was able to communicate my
> answers effectively and politely.
I want to go on record as a strong supporter of your efforts. Your
willingness to consult your peers with this brain-storming effort does
you credit! However, IMHO, at the end of the day, you must follow your
intuition and good sense after taking all informed and uninformed
opinions into consideration. I like your proposal! It will be
interesting to use your proposal in due course.
--
Duke Normandin
Turner Valley, Alberta, Canada
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