Lesson 8 basics

[Skillmon]

Just the basics of the tabular environment. Might need extensive rework.

[josephwright]

Should we have Frank's new w type column here?

[Skillmon]

@josephwright IIRC, it is contained in array.sty not in the kernel.

[FrankMittelbach]

Even though the array extension requires using a package I think it is is so much core that it should be recommended upfront (caveat: only commenting on the level of comments above, not yet looked at what or how somehting is described)

[Skillmon]

@josephwright something else: The used MD-Syntax in this is for descriptions (\n: ), but it's not part of core-markdown and I have no idea whether it'll be supported on learnlatex. It might be necessary to reformulate this as a markdown table, which are also not part of core-markdown, or an inline HTML table if absolutely necessary.

[josephwright]

@Skillmon We are using GitHub Pages behind-the-scenes: whatever works in that regard is fine. (I've no desire to run Jekyll locally)

[josephwright]

@Skillmon Sure but I think we should just say 'load array in all cases': really it's one of those 'would have been in the kernel if the team were not short of tokens in 1994' things

[PhelypeOleinik]

I think the lesson should also cover \multirow, shouldn't it? It's not
in the kernel, yes, but it's a fairly common thing to use in tables.

[josephwright]

Do we really want \multirow? It's usually a sign of a badly-constructed table

[Skillmon]

I'd vote against \multirow as well. In most cases, working the other way around gives better and more predictable results. \multirow always feels like a poor man's solution, imho. I'd rather include instructions of \makecell or tell the users to use a nested tabular.

[PhelypeOleinik]

Well, yes, abominations can be created there, but it is useful
sometimes. Though perhaps not often enough to be worth the effort.
I yield :-)

[josephwright]

@PhelypeOleinik We all get to agree the curriculum; it's complicated :)

[Skillmon]

Is \newcolumntype in or out?

[josephwright]

@Skillmon Does it fall within strictly beginners? I'm flexible on that, but I'd want an example that's common enough

[Skillmon]

@josephwright I did not include it in that commit. I frequently use it :) I think one of the "classics" is something like \newcolumntype{L}[1]{>{\RaggedRight\arraybackslash}p{#1}} (or using \raggedright) if you need a fixed width column that'll be too narrow for full justification.

[FrankMittelbach]

Well, yes, abominations can be created there, but it is useful
sometimes. Though perhaps not often enough to be worth the effort.

there has to be something left for TLC :-) else all the work there is in vain :-) But no I don't think we want anything more than the basics initially. My point was that I think "array" is basics. It is only not in the kernel because it fixes the rules andso does change the table width slightly.

And no, I don't think \newcolumntype should be in.

[josephwright]

@Skillmon I guess it depends on how you look at it; for me, I use tables for pretty limited cases, and they are all one-liners. As @FrankMittelbach says, the aim of the site is (for me) to get people over the very first day or so of usage. Lots and lots of people need some form of table, enough to include them, but beyond that it's more complex.

[FrankMittelbach]

Am 23.03.20 um 23:09 schrieb Skillmon:

@josephwright <https://github.com/josephwright> I did not include it in that commit. I frequently use it :) I think one of the "classics" is something like |\newcolumntype{L}[1]{>{\RaggedRight\arraybackslash}p{#1}}| (or using |\raggedright|) if you need a fixed width column that'll be too narrow for full justification.

I think we have to experiment a bit with the site to see what works. In my opinion there should be a clear beginner path through it that fairly uncluttered and gives you enough basics so that you can produce reasonable documents but not sophisticated ones. And there should probably a secondary path through it (or side pages that you can access from the main path) that gives you more detail and more sophistication. So to stay with the example of \newcolumntype: in the main path it may just state that one can even extend the syntax and define your own column types for more sophisticated/complex tables, together than with a link to the more detailed pages. whether that will work (or how to make it work well) is something I think experiments will tell and it also depends on the design etc. so for now I would go and concentrate on this main "elementary path" first but also produce a few example pages for a secondary path as well as a few example pages of the type of "further details on ..." and then when we come to design questions see how eiter or both can be made to work nicely. That would be my approach.

[josephwright]

We could consider a set of 'extension lessons' for each main lesson, so going-further-8.md or similar here. That would give us a predictable structure and let us have a link on each main lesson: keep the basics clear but also give us more scope for content. I think that deserves a separate issue: I'll create one.

[Skillmon]

If no one objects, I'll merge this into master today.

[FrankMittelbach]

what is this *doing?

[Skillmon]

I don't know, I didn't add it. I merged with master because the filenames changed, I guess it was added there.

[Skillmon]

@FrankMittelbach can confirm that this was added to this branch in e3861e2 which was the merge of master into this branch. Didn't search for when it was added to master though. I'd guess that the author wanted to add bullet points there with other resources and used this as a placeholder.