Tabular formatting should be specified as a style parameter

[darioteixeira]

In Lambtex, the formatting/alignment for tabular environments is specified à la LaTeX, ie, \begin{tabular}{ccc} (for example). This syntax was chosen for LaTeX compatibility, but is anomalous within Lambtex. For the sake of language consistency, the column formatting/alignment should be specified as a style parameter, ie, \begin<format=ccc>{tabular}.

Unfortunately this will break existing docs out there, though the migration should be a simple matter of search & replace. What do you think @edwintorok?

[edwintorok]

Are you going to change the advanced cell syntax too? Previously the {2c_} was consistent with {ccc}, not sure how that should look after using style parameters.
Perhaps \col<format=2c_>{ ... contents of multicolumn span ..}?

[darioteixeira]

Yes, for consistency sake the cell syntax would need to to change too. Since the angle brackets < > are the universal syntax for style/formatting, |{2c_} would be changed to |<f=2c_>. Note that the cell formatting would be specified as a key/value pair with f as the key (the name for the key is open for discussion, of course). This would allow for specifying classname styles also for individual cells. For instance: |<fancy>.

This revised syntax has the disadvantage of being slightly more verbose. Nevertheless, I think it's worth considering because it makes the style syntax uniform across the entire Lambtex language.