Proposal: table row attribute: keep together

[Daniel Vogelheim <Daniel.Vogelheim@sun.com>]

Hi all,

I'd like to propose the following (non-)feature for the file format: Add 
a flag that allows table lines to be broken across pages.

Currently, there's two different behaviours with respect to text flow of 
tables across pages. Some applications break table rows at page 
boundaries, others (like OOo) don't. We want to allow either in OOo, so 
I would like to add a corresponding attribute to the table row.

Here's some ASCII-art illustration: Suppose you have a table like this:

+-----+-----+-----+
|aaaaa|bbbbb|ccccc|
+-----+-----+-----+
|big  |bbbbb|ccccc|
|cell |     |     |
+-----+-----+-----+
|aaaaa|bbbbb|ccccc|
+-----+-----+-----+

If the page ends right in the middle of the second table row, then most 
layouters would break the cells (left), while OOo would move it to the 
next page (right). I believe both are legitimate, hence the new flag: 
style:keep-together="false" (left), style:keep-together="true" (right).


   +-----+-----+-----+          +-----+-----+-----+
   |aaaaa|bbbbb|ccccc|          |aaaaa|bbbbb|ccccc|
   +-----+-----+-----+          +-----+-----+-----+
   |big  |bbbbb|ccccc|         
-------------------------    -------------------------
   |cell |     |     |          +-----+-----+-----+
   +-----+-----+-----+          |big  |bbbbb|ccccc|
   |aaaaa|bbbbb|ccccc|          |cell |     |     |
   +-----+-----+-----+          +-----+-----+-----+
                                |aaaaa|bbbbb|ccccc|
                                +-----+-----+-----+


Relax-NG:
<define name="style-table-row-properties-attlist" combine="interleave">
<optional>
<attribute name="style:keep-together">
<ref name="boolean"/>
</attribute>
</optional>
</define>


Sincerely,
Daniel