X-Git-Url: http://git.vanrenterghem.biz/git.ikiwiki.info.git/blobdiff_plain/534797d71997be4f37bf4946e7e8c351ea0d9706..b760b8f171fb99013c7e1462f79df3522e973472:/doc/todo/support_multi-row_table_headers.mdwn

diff --git a/doc/todo/support_multi-row_table_headers.mdwn b/doc/todo/support_multi-row_table_headers.mdwn
index 2b22d5d3e..1d418a41b 100644
--- a/doc/todo/support_multi-row_table_headers.mdwn
+++ b/doc/todo/support_multi-row_table_headers.mdwn
@@ -13,7 +13,13 @@ It would be great if it were possible to support multi-row table headers in the
 [[!tag wishlist patch]]
 
 > This seems like weird overloading of the header parameter - it's
-> table data, except when it isn't. Perhaps
+> table data, except when it isn't.
+
+> > My first cut (now rebased out of existence I think) introduced a
+> > new "headerblock" parameter, but trying to clearly document the
+> > interaction of data/headerblock/header parameters was too awkward. -- [[Jon]]
+
+> Perhaps
 > something like this would be easier to use in practice?
 > (and also more featureful :-) )
 >
@@ -23,7 +29,17 @@ It would be great if it were possible to support multi-row table headers in the
 >     ikiwiki | no | yes | yes
 >     Starcraft | yes | yes | via Wine
 >     """]]
->
+
+> > Thanks for your prompt feedback!
+> > 
+> > This would probably be good, yes, and having mixed row/column headers is
+> > definitely a nice-to-have. I don't relish the prospect of writing the parser
+> > but I see you've made a stab already...
+> > 
+> > One thing you'd lose, but it's debatable whether this is valuable, would be
+> > to have the header defined in the directive, and the remaining table data
+> > declared in an external CSV. -- [[Jon]]
+
 > intended to be rendered like
 >
 > <table>
@@ -56,3 +72,27 @@ It would be great if it were possible to support multi-row table headers in the
 > `header="1 row, first 2 cols, last column"`.
 >
 > --[[smcv]]
+
+> > To be clear I think your suggestion is a good one, but my hack has
+> > addressed my immediate need so it's the one I'm deploying at $ork for the
+> > time being. I'm unlikely to have time to implement this solution in the
+> > near future. -- [[Jon]]
+
+----
+
+I'd quite like to revisit this if that's ok. I'm still carrying a fork of
+table.pm locally to add this feature as I find it so useful. The main objection
+you made back in 2014 seems to be overloading the header= parameter, and I agree
+that this is not ideal. So I'm happy to resubmit this with an alternative parameter
+name for the new purpose. But I balked at the idea of implementing something like 
+an NLP processor to define the header range. And I must stress how useful it is in
+practise to separate out the header definition from the data: quite often I don't
+want headers in my CSV files at all, for example, so I can perform rudimentary analysis
+on them with command line tools without having to factor in a header line (how many
+records?  = `wc -l`; sorting on fields simply with `sort -k` etc.). Having them
+separate means I can have machine-generated or manipulated CSV files of data and then
+use ikiwiki to mark them up for human reading, but change or regenerate the data quickly
+and easily underneath.
+
+I'd appreciate your take on the above suggestions [[smcv]] before I roll my sleeves up.
+Thanks! — [[Jon]] (2018-09-24)