Re: multitable widths problem

[Werner LEMBERG]

>> I think it's due to the space between columns being included in the
>> width of each column.
> 
> One possible solution could be to calculate the 20%, 30% etc. of a
> smaller page width and then to add the spaces in between columns
> after.  This would change the output slightly for existing documents
> but I agree it is confusing to have a first column to be wider than
> a later column when they are specified has having exactly the same
> width.
> 
> For example, with @columnfractions 0.3 0.7 the first column has 30%
> and no space, and the second column has 70% but has a space included
> at the left side of the column, so the content takes up slightly
> less than 70%.  If that were changed, then the first column would
> become slightly narrower, and the content of the second column
> slightly wider.
> 
> Without any changes to texinfo.tex, you could use prototypes instead
> like
> 
> @multitable {abcmno abcmno abcmno} {abcmno abcmno} {abcmno abcmno abcmno} 
> {abcmno abcmno}
> @item
> @code{abcde fghijklmnopqrstuvw}
> @tab
> foobar
> @tab
> @code{abcde fghijklmnopqrstuvw}
> @tab
> foobar
> @end multitable
> 
> as there the width is not included in the width of the column,
> although this is obviously worse to put in your file.

Thanks for the explanation.  What I conclude is that changing the way
`@columnfractions` works would break too much documents.  Alas, using
prototypes is not always practicable.

I thus suggest that you introduce a new command, say, `@columnwidths`,
that works the same as `@columnfractions` does but without including
the space between columns.

And while you are at it: Another nice thing would be the ability to be
able to use both fraction values and prototypes :-)

Regardless of improvements, the documentation should be improved so
that people like me are not suprised by unexpected results of
`@columnfractions`.


    Werner