Philip Linde <linde.philip at gmail.com> wrote: > I think that using preformatted blocks as an extension vector for > table data is a bad idea. Preformatted then no longer always means > preformatted. Yes, I agree, the container format (```table```) is bad. I was more interested in the actual format - but we can definitely change the containing layout. Do you have any suggestions? > I also have qualms about the suggested format itself because there are > already formats for describing tabular data with a lot of tooling > support. If the goal is machine readability, choose a format which is > already supported by numerous software. The issue is that none of the other table formats I've seen are both human readable and easily machine parsable. This one is. > In particular I think it's a bad idea to introduce something like this > as an optional recommended best practice. Either go all in, or what > looks like a table in one client will look nothing like a table in > another. There are two issues with going 'all in' (which I understand as making it a proper part of the gemtext part of the spec): firstly, that clients will treat it as a must-have, which it isn't (it's pretty readable without any fancy rendering), and secondly that the spec is almost finalized right now, and I don't see it making it in (because of how rarely it comes up). I did mention this as a best case scenario, but your last point is why I've introduced this idea at all - to prevent the aggregation of multiple different supported table formats. > My suggested solution: if you really need an in-line human readable > table, lay it out in a preformatted block such that it makes sense to > a user with a client that interprets and displays preformatted blocks > as preformatted blocks. If you need the same data to be available > machine readable, link to a corresponding CSV/TSV/*SV below. Well, with my format, you can have both. Of course, even slighly large tables can and should be kept in CSV or similar, but this works well for small tables which may be modified often. The issue with a fully laid out table in a preformatted block is 1) that it's getting into presentation (different users will create different looking tables, adding style as they see fit, but that's against the general gemtext philosophy), and 2) that it's difficult to modify cells without having to adjust the entire table. My format is affected by neither, because all the table control is done via whitespace (and one can't style HTs and LFs), and because cells are on individual lines which are much easier to move around or to add to. ~aravk | ~nothien
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