Re: tables and columns interacting badly

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi,

"Martin DeMello" <address@hidden> writes:

> no takers? it can't be as hard as I'm finding it - surely this is a
> common use-case when printing long, narrow tables!

I can't find your original message in my mailbox.  Did it really go
through the list?

>> @SysInclude { tbl }
>> @SysInclude { doc }
>> @Document
>>   @InitialFont { Courier Base 10p }
>>   @ColumnNumber { 2 }
>> //
>> @Text @Begin
>> @Tbl
>>   aformat{ @address@hidden rule {yes} A}| @Cell rule {yes} B }
>>   {
>>   @Rowa
>>     A { AAEEINT }
>>     B { TAENIAE }
>>   @Rowa
>>     A { AEEIORT }
>>     B { ETAERIO }
>>
>> [etc...]
>>
>> The problem is that when I change the document's ColumnNumber to 2,
>> the first column of the table suddenly expands (it sized itself neatly
>> to the text when I had just one column), and the two table columns
>> actually overlap. If I increase ColumnNumber further, the second
>> column of the table gets more and more compressed, while the first
>> column stays expanded. How do I fix this? I've attached a ps file to
>> illustrate the problem.

First thing: add a linebreak (address@hidden') just before the table.  Now, it's
the second column of the table that expands to fill all the available
space.

Second, you can add a trailing horizontal concatenation (`|') in your
row format (I believe this is documented in the user guide):

  aformat { @Cell rule { yes } @B { A } | @Cell rule { yes } B | }

(Note that address@hidden' is better placed around `A' than around 
address@hidden'.)

And voilà: you have a wonderful table that doesn't expand unreasonably!

Thanks,
Ludovic.