Re: [docbook] Re: DocBook colwidth Problems

["Bob Stayton" <bobs@sagehill.net>]

> Norman Walsh was heard to say:
>
> / "Fondern, Michael van" <michael.van.fondern@imp-gmbh.de> was heard to
say:
> | IMHO, "colwidth" can be very useful without extensions, even without the
> | complete CALS functionality. I use xsltproc which does not support the
> | extensions, and I would appreciate it if I do not have to change the
xslt
> | processor just for
> | doing something simple like <colspec colwidth="20%">.
> |
> | Since the 'generate.col' template works fine for me when disabling the
test
s
> | for 'use.extensions' and 'tablecolumns.extension', I wonder if it might
be
> | possible that on of the upcoming docbook-xml version allows some simple
use
> | of "colwidth" without extensions.
>
> The problem here is that the semantics of the colwidth attribute are
> defined by CALS. The way you specify precentages in CALS is with the
> "nn*" notation which requires the extensions.
>
> You could use the HTML table model instead of CALS.
>
> Or DocBook could support some sort of extension to CALS. Maybe. I'd be
> a little reluctant.

Actually, there are cases where you don't need an extension.  If all of the
column widths are specified with *, then you just divide one by the sum of
them, multiply by 100, and concat a % sign.  XSLT can do that much math.
I've done that for HTML before.

Bob Stayton
Sagehill Enterprises
DocBook Consulting
bobs@sagehill.net