Tables

[robert mcgonegal]

On 2-Dec-05, at 1:55 PM, Michel Fortin wrote:


> Le 2005-12-02 à 13:28, Dr. Drang a écrit :

>

>> * In fact, I'd like to see the cell alignment extended to include  

>> decimal

>>   alignment. Thus

>>

>>   Multiply  |   by     | to get

>>   ----------|.---------|---------

>>    ft       |   0.3048 | m

>>    mph      |   0.447  | m/s

>>    in       |  25.4    | mm

>>    hp       | 745.7    | W

>>

>>   would align the middle column on the decimal point using a

>>   <col align="char"> tag. As with the colon, the period tucked in the

>>   line of dashes seems unobtrusive to me.

>

> Pretty good idea... but for this to be useful you need some browser  

> support. Unless I'm mistaken, this isn't supported neither by  

> Firefox or Safari. This is one reason why PHP Markdown Extra  

> doesn't support this.

>

> The other problem is that you cannot always count on the alignment  

> character to be a dot. If French, for example, the decimal  

> separator is a comma. And there may be some uses for other  

> characters as well, I'm thinking about '/' or ':' to align ratios.



   Multiply  |   by     | to get   | Three   |   Four     |   Five
   <---------|,---------|:---------|-------->|<---------->|'----------
    ft       |   0,3048 | 234:1    |       m |    Yes     |  22'06
    mph      |   0,447  |   3:2    |     m/s |    No      | 332'045
    in       |  25,4    |  23:1    |      mm |  Perhaps   |   4'78
    hp       | 745,7    |   2:3    |       W |   Maybe    |  23'451


The default would be aligned left, so <--- isn't necessary.

Robert McGonegal