Markdown development

[Seumas Mac Uilleachan]

On 24/03/10 01:49 PM, Bowerbird at aol.com wrote:

> sherwood said:

> >   I don't understand.

>

> what's to understand?          :+)

>

>

> >   Are you saying that MD should recognize elastic tab stops

> >   in a file and convert that to a html table?

>

> yes, that's what i'm saying, or at least part of it.

>

>

> >   This is certainly a possible route, but given

> >   the number of editors that don't recognize

> >   elastic tab stops, this is daunting.

>

> at some point, you have to free yourself from the constraints

> that low-quality software imposes on your workflow, yes sir...

>

> but, you know, all it takes is for one brave leader to _lead_,

> and a number of non-cowardly followers to _follow_, and

> -- before you know it -- a new capability is taken for granted.

>

>

> >   It also means that MD needs to recognize

> >   at least two ways to do tables -- ets and markup.

>

> well, if you want to keep a horse around in addition to

> your new horseless carriage, by all means, feel free...         ;+)

>

>

> >   Are you saying that browsers should all be smart enough

> >   to recognize elastic tab stops?

>

> yes.  every text-editing environment should have the capability.

>

> because -- if you've programmed it, like i have -- you'll know

> that it's really not all that difficult to code.  indeed, it's easy...

>

> and although i don't remember this in the work-up on them

> (because i conceived them long before that, independently),

> this functionality should include a feature that will convert

> multiple spaces to a tab character (the easy part) as well as

> convert a tab to the "correct" number of multiple spaces...

> (e.g., so the table displays correctly in a monospaced font).

> i'd think the default save-format would be multiple-spaces,

> just to accommodate the non-tab-aware software out there.

>

> there's nothing "magical" about this functionality.  it's just

> a straightforward implementation of old-fashioned tabs,

> with the new wrinkle that the columns are self-adjusting

> to the size they need to be.  which is something we could

> have reasonably expected our computers to do all along...

> (indeed, isn't this capability already in most spreadsheets?)

>

>

> >   While an admirable goal, I won't hold my breath for the day

> >   that 95% of browsing is done with ETS capable browsers.

>

> i'm not holding my breath for 95% of browsers being _capable_,

> in _any_ sense of the word, not as long as we have a microsoft...

>

> but in cost-benefit terms, cost being low, benefits being high,

> this particular feature is one that has a good cost-benefit ratio.

>

> all it will take is for somebody out front to "just do it"...

>

> this is _not_ a betamax/vhs situation.  vhs was "good enough".

> nobody says our current table functionality is "good enough".

>

> -bowerbird

>


You're not really talking tables here though, you're talking 
self-aligning columns of text. That is not the same thing as an html 
table, even though that is what tables are often used for.


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