Dear Nicolas,
I apologise for not understanding fully what you propose. I use org-mode
extensively, so any possibility of "change" tends to make me anxious.
Nicolas> Besides, columns cookies may work for you, but, as pointed
Nicolas> out, they are limited:
Nicolas> - Setting a width cookie also changes how the table is
Nicolas> exported (e.g., in ASCII export). However I may want to
Nicolas> narrow view of the table and, yet, export it to its full
Nicolas> extent.
Nicolas> - Setting a width cookie hard-codes how the column is
Nicolas> displayed. I may want to completely hide the column
Nicolas> temporarily, or expand it without affecting other narrowed
Nicolas> columns.
Nicolas> - Setting a width cookie segregates other columns. I can
Nicolas> only narrow columns with a width cookie. I may want to
Nicolas> temporarily hide another column without modifying my table.
I appreciate these points and indeed I regularly face export
problems. However, I just manually remove the cookies if they become an
issue. I accept other users may wish to work differently.
Nicolas> The real question for now is: how can we alter columns
Nicolas> display when at a table? E.g.,
Nicolas> - Do we need two commands, one for narrowing (to a given
Nicolas> number of characters) and one for shrinking (to one
Nicolas> character only)? Or would a command toggling between the
Nicolas> three states be sufficient?
Nicolas> - Is there some rule of thumb to narrow a column when no
Nicolas> width cookie is supplied or should we consider this kind of
Nicolas> columns has only two states, shrunk and expanded?
In my own case, the values of the column widths are not static but vary
from file-to-file. I don't have any rule of thumb, except, from my own
experience, I have never found the need to shrink any column to a single
character.
Nicolas> - Supposing we focus on a single, cycling, command, how
Nicolas> should it behave when called on multiple columns at a time?
Nicolas> Since some columns may have two states and other ones
Nicolas> three, it may end up being confusing for the user.
To me, that's the beauty of my present arrangement: it's simple,
intuitive and controllable. I am sure that my requirements are more
modest than those of other users.
Nicolas> Food for thought.
Indeed.
Best wishes,
Colin.
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Colin Baxter
[email protected]
GnuPG fingerprint: 68A8 799C 0230 16E7 BF68 2A27 BBFA 2492 91F5 41C8
