Re: [Groff] tbl and inter-column spacing

[Clarke Echols]

You can specify column width (see examples on tbl(1) man page):
   lw(1i)
for example.  I don't know of the (1i) could be replaced with
(w'string') instead, but suspect it would work.  I've never needed
the feature in my stuff, so I don't know.

Clarke

Joerg van den Hoff wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 04:52:21PM +0200, Joerg van den Hoff wrote:
> > hi,
> >
> > I  have  not  used  `tbl'   for  some  time  and now see the
> > following behaviour, which was not present before, I'm quite
> > sure:
> >
> > the  inter-column  space  seems  to be zero, i.e. in a table
> > with all left centered columns the longest entry (max. width
> > entry,  I  mean)  in  each column "touches" the neighbouring
> > entry in the same row (in the next column),  i.e.  it  looks
> > something like this, for instance:
> >
> > ------
> > a  b
> > foobar
> > ------
> >
> > if  column  1 has entries 'a' and 'foo' and column 2 'b' and
> > 'bar'.  which sure it should not.
> >
> > I was not lucky in the docs and the mail archive. so:
> >
> > question  1:  is  there  a  way  to specify the inter-column
> > spacing (minimal distance between end of some entry and next
> > entry in the same row)? a register I should know of, e.g.?
> >
> > question  2:  I have'nt seen this behaviour in the past. how
> > come?  has there been a change of default behaviour or am  I
> > doing something wrong which only surfaced now?
> >
> >
> > joerg
> >
> >
> > PS: I'm using `tbl' in conjunction with the `ms' macros and
> > groff version 1.19.3 under MacOS.
>
> oophs...
> according to Murphy's law, I always discover something _after_ hitting
> "send": my problem seems simply to be caused by mismatch between table
> width and line length: the table in question was extending farther to
> the right than it should. so quickly forget about my previous mail as
> far as apparent misbehaviour of `tbl' is concerned. sorry for the noise.
>
> but  I  still  would appreciate to get some hint how to tune
> the inter-column spacing.
>
> and it's still funny: the table is rendered completely (but extending
> into the right margin), only the inter-column space is squeezed to zero,
> it seems. now: is _this_ intended behaviour? should one not get some
> kind of warning ("table to wide" or something like that)?
>
> joerg