Current state and the future of PrettyTables.jl

Package Announcements
101

Are the plots using UnicodePlots? :blush: Very cool feature

1 Like
102

See the footnote (another great PrettyTables feature :smiley: )

3 Likes
103

Ahh I totally missed that footnote. :joy:

1 Like
104

Yes! I used UnicodePlots.jl. This test was related to the AnsiTextCell, a custom cell type that you can pass any string with decorations and it renders it correctly inside the cell.

105

Hi!

I need to design the name for some predefined table formats in PrettyTables.jl. I have already asked here, and @xlxs4 suggestion was to keep what we have now. However, it will not be possible.

For example, now we have tf_ascii_dots to define a text table format that uses ASCII dots at borders. The name came from a far past when we only have a text back end. Now, I can rename to tf_text_ascii_dots , but it is not good also. In the new design, we have a TextTableFormat that stores all the variables related to table formatting (border style, where to draw vertical and horizontal lines, etc). The old tf_text_ascii_dots relates only to the border style. Now, we have the structure TextTableBorder for this purpose.

Hence, I have two options:

  1. tf_text_border_ascii_dots , which is not the way things are called in English; or
  2. the very verbose text_table_border__ascii_dots.

The latter uses two underscores to separate a “naming space” and I use it a lot internally. What do you think?

  • tf_text_border_ascii_dots
  • text_table_border__ascii_dots
  • Other (please, comment)
0 voters
106

To be less verbose, maybe something like

txt_tborder_ascii_dots

In any case, I will have to read the syntax, unless I use them often I cannot remember such strings.

1 Like
107

What about

abstract type TxtPredefinedBorderFmt end
struct TxtDotsBorderFmt <: TxtPredefinedBorderFmt end
struct TxtOtherBorderFmt <: TxtPredefinedBorderFmt end

function TextTableBorder(fmt::TxtPredefinedBorderFmt)
    if isa(fmt, TxtDotsBorderFmt) # Or use dispatch
        return ....
    elseif isa(fmt, TxtOtherBorderFmt)
        return ....
    end
end
108

If TextTableBorder is used across a lot of names, a simple ttb_ascii_dots would help reduce the verbosity

109

Thanks for the suggestion @xlxs4 ! However, I realized that probably I will not be able to create good acronyms for PrettyTables.jl at this stage. For example, if we use ttb_ for the text back end, what would we use for the Typst back end when it is implemented ? The problem occurs because we do not have a final product yet.

My conclusion is to be verbose but clear. Afterward, maybe someone in the community can see the whole picture and create a PrettyTablesMeta.jl to make things easier like we have in DataFramesMeta.jl.

10 Likes