Atlas Cove <atla...@gmx.com> writes:
> On 18/03/2021 14:26, Timothy wrote: >>Interesting suggestion you have here. >>On a related note, I wonder if you might have seen this thread I raised >>a while ago: https://orgmode.org/list/87k0v361x9....@gmail.com/ >>The discussion has died down (unfortunately), but the idea is still on >>my mind. >> >>-- >>Timothy > > I'd like to propose to fold my discussion into yours. In principal, it wold be great to be able to support multi-row columns. However, I'm not sure how easily this can actually be implemented in a consistent and maintainable manner. >From watching these discussions in the past, I think the big stumbling block is how easily multi-row columns can be added and maintained in the various export formats. Some are easy, like HTML, but others are less so. In particular, I know from my many years working with Latex, multi-row columns are not straight-forward. There are lots of edge cases to deal with and it is hard to get a consistent result programatically. Proposals like this one can seem simple and straight-forward on the surface. However, implementation is another matter. All of the exporters will need to be updated to handle this new syntax and it will probably take a fair bit of work to handle it correctly in just plain org files (formatting, highlighting etc). If this was something people were prepared to put the time into implementing, I think it must be done in a completely separate feature branch and would need to be fully tested (including all back end exporters) before it can be merged into the mainline branch. It would also be important to profile and ensure it does not have significant impact on performance. I am a little concerned about the expansion and addition of features in org mode when there seems to already be a challenge with respect to maintenance and bug fixing. Personally, I would prefer an org mode which is consistent and reliable over one with large numbers of features that is less stable and slower. -- Tim Cross
