RE: [boost] Re: Thoughts on Format

From: Brey, Edward D (EdwardDBrey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-01-29 17:22:39

> From: Stewart, Robert [mailto:stewart_at_[hidden]]
>
>     [@:80]@[1]@Example@[2:8.2^~]
> 
> which means divide an 80 character field into four equal regions (20
> characters each), putting the value of argument 1 in the 
> second region,
> "Example" in the third region, and the value of argument 2 in 
> the fourth
> region.  Furthermore, the formatting of argument 2, within 
> the fourth region
> uses a field width of 8, a precision of 2, centers the value, 
> and uses "~"
> as the fill character.
> 
> What do you think?

I like it.  The @ within the opening []s threw me for a bit.  It makes me
wonder if it might be better to find a way to specify the width without
using the column separator character.  Otherwise, it looks quite nice.

> > wouldn't there be some cases where it would be handy to 
> hand-specify the
> tab
> > locations?  This reminds me of HTML tables.  It also points 
> out a fuzzy
> > line: When does format go too far such that it becomes its 
> own mark-up
> > language (i.e. Lynx in library format)?
> 
> I don't think we should go that far.  You can do a surprisingly varied
> amount of formatting with spring tabs.  Anything beyond that 
> would get too
> complicated -- one of the things we're trying to eliminate -- 
> and would
> certainly encroach on many other methods for rendering text.  
> Besides, look
> at my example above; you don't want to make things any more 
> complicated than
> that, do you?

I agree that we shouldn't go anywhere near a system like HTML->text.  My
mentioning of the concept was meant as a warning of the feature creep
danger.  I think basic alignment, like centering and spring tabs, is a good
compromise: quite useful but still quite manageable.