[NTG-context] Simplified input for natural tables

8 Mar 2009

      Hi Hans,

natural tables are perfect to create tables with a fixed size for the  
cells
but the syntax requires sometimes a lot of typing for small content  
and takes
to many lines of code in the document.

I wrote a while ago a simple wrapper to use a table/tabulate like syntax
for the input, what I don't like is to load a extra module for just a  
few
lines of code and I think they can be integrated in the core-ntb code.

Wolfgang

%D \module
%D   [       file=wolf-tab,
%D        version=2007.01.26,
%D          title=\CONTEXT\ User Module,
%D       subtitle=New Tables,
%D         author=Wolfgang Schuster,
%D           date=\currentdate,
%D      copyright=Wolfgang Schuster]

\writestatus{loading}{Context User Module / New Tables}

\unprotect

%D This module provides an easy way to use natural in a similiar
%D way as the older table module (based on the \TABLE\ macros) and
%D the newer tabulate module.
%D
%D You can see the advantage in the following table, once created
%D with the new macros and once with the normal macros provided
%D with the natural table module.
%D
%D Let us start with the original macros:
%D
%D \starttyping
%D \bTABLE
%D   \bTR
%D     \bTD Text 1 \eTD
%D     \bTD Text 2 \eTD
%D   \eTR
%D   \bTR
%D     \bTD Text 3 \eTD
%D     \bTD Text 4 \eTD
%D   \eTR
%D \eTABLE
%D \stoptyping
%D
%D and now with my new macros:
%D
%D \starttyping
%D \startTABLE
%D \NC Text 1 \NC Text 2 \NC\NR
%D \NC Text 3 \NC Text 4 \NC\NR
%D \stopTABLE
%D \stoptyping

\def\startTABLE
   {\dosingleempty\dostartTABLE}

\def\dostartTABLE[#1]%
   {\bgroup
    \def\NC{\parseNC}
    \bTABLE[#1]}

\def\stopTABLE
   {\eTABLE
    \egroup}

\def\parseNC#1\NR
   {\bTR
    \processNC#1\stopNC\NC}

\def\stopNC{\stopNC}

\def\processNC#1\NC%
   {\def\temp{#1}%
    \ifx\temp\stopNC
      \eTR
    \else \bTD#1\eTD%
          \expandafter\processNC
    \fi}

% shorter but did not work when external files are loaded in the table,
% e.g. \bTD \input knuth \eTD.
%
%\def\parseNC#1\NC\NR
%  {\bTR
%   \processseparatedlist[#1][\NC]\processNC
%   \eTR}
%
%\def\processNC#1%
%  {\bTD#1\eTD}

%D I used the same mechanism as in \type{core-ntb.tex} to allow  
different
%D headers on the first and the following pages. The only changes ist  
that
%D I renamed the commands from \tex{bTABLE...} to \tex{startTABLE...}  
and
%D from \tex{eTABLE...} to \tex{stopTABLE...} to match the start and  
stop
%D pair at begin and end of the table.

\long\def\startTABLEhead{\dosingleempty\dostartTABLEhead}
\long\def\startTABLEnext{\dosingleempty\dostartTABLEnext}
\long\def\startTABLEbody{\dosingleempty\dostartTABLEbody}
\long\def\startTABLEfoot{\dosingleempty\dostartTABLEfoot}

\long\def\dostartTABLEhead[#1]#2\stopTABLEhead{\appendtoks 
\doTABLEsection[#1]{#2}\to\TBLhead}
\long\def\dostartTABLEnext[#1]#2\stopTABLEnext{\appendtoks 
\doTABLEsection[#1]{#2}\to\TBLnext}
\long\def\dostartTABLEbody[#1]#2\stopTABLEbody{\appendtoks 
\doTABLEsection[#1]{#2}\to\TBLbody}
\long\def\dostartTABLEfoot[#1]#2\stopTABLEfoot{\appendtoks 
\doTABLEsection[#1]{#2}\to\TBLfoot}

%D \startbuffer
%D \startTABLE
%D \NC Text 1 \NC Text 2 \NC\NR
%D \NC Text 3 \NC Text 4 \NC\NR
%D \stopTABLE
%D \stopbuffer
%D
%D My example from the begin of this module
%D
%D \typebuffer
%D
%D looks like this:
%D
%D \startlinecorrection
%D \getbuffer
%D \stoplinecorrection

\protect \endinput