* Yuki Kimoto <kimoto.yuki@gmail.com> [2021-11-16 09:44:36 +0900]: > 2021-11-15 23:45 Tomasz Konojacki <me@xenu.pl> wrote: > > > > > I think we should fix POD instead. There are two big problems with it: > > the lack of images and the lack of tables. Both are fixable. I will > > probably submit pre-RFCs soon. > > > > > Currently I write images and tables in POD using "=begin html" and "=end > html" syntax. > > If these are implemented, I'm glad. I don't see how we're going to be able to do tables in a tabular way and not short the value POD has as a readable format in its own right. =html <table> <tr> <th>Column 1</th><th>Column 2</th><th>Column 3</th> </tr> <tr> <td>...... 1</td><td>...... 2</td><td>...... 3</td> </tr> <tr> <td>...... 1</td><td>...... 2</td><td>...... 3</td> </tr> <tr> <td>...... 1</td><td>...... 2</td><td>...... 3</td> </tr> </table> =end To this end, this problem will not be solved by syntax because the problem "space" is literaly 2D. What I mean there is that POD has the constraint that is not solvable by "markup" - the plain text view (e.g., source code) view of the POD must make sense and look good. Markup/down is meant as an intermediate format to get to a rendered state. For us the intermediate state is also a final state. The solution will be a combination of: * tool(s) - a "podtidy" (several exist on CPAN) - a "parser" renderers may use to take an ASCII table into an abstract form that can then be used to output whatever (e.g., HTML, groff, PDF, etc) * syntax - the syntax must also look like a table (2D) - the official "syntax" being some form of an ASCII table (e.g., see Text::ASCIITable) - drop table into a "=table"/"=end" block * workflow adoption (same as w/perltidy) The following seems to be a reasonable and familiar workflow: 1) in POD, create table by hand using best effort "ASCIITable" format (focus on content and partions, but not alignment) 2) run "podtidy" (e.g., via vim using the '%!podtidy` format, which will take a valid NxM table and line things up 3) maintaining the table consists of modifying the table in question, then re-running "podtidy" Challenges: * yes there are some, but more familiarity with the tools needs to be acheived * using 2 tools (perltidy, podtidy) seems cumbersome; maybe perltidy needs to adopt this role once it's vetted Other things this could support: * =verbatim * =blockquote Thoughts? Brett Note: Tables are not the same problem as images or inline monospaced code. -- -- oodler@cpan.org oodler577@sdf-eu.org SDF-EU Public Access UNIX System - http://sdfeu.org irc.perl.org #openmp #pdl #nativeThread Previous | Thread Next