Max Nikulin writes:
> I have started a discussion requesting for a \\-like command without
> optional arguments. Maybe somebody will suggest a better workaround
> instead.
> https://github.com/lvjr/tabularray/discussions/321
I've had a look at the thread. What do you think of that
\NewTableCommand\empty{} workaround mentioned at
https://github.com/lvjr/tabularray/discussions/321#discussioncomment-3920957?
Since the \empty option only has problems in tabularray, maybe we could
keep it, and put in the documentation some recommendations for
tabularray users. I imagine they would have to add a @@latex:\empty@@
before each row that follows a line. A bit laborious, I'm afraid.
Another possibility that occurs to me is that the string reserved for
\empty, [0pt], etc., is a defcustom, with a value of \empty by default.
So the user would choose what suits him best.
By the way (a little digression), I was curious to see if these age-old
LaTeX problems with line breaking exist in ConTeXt as well. Since I'm
completely unfamiliar with ConTeXt, the quickest thing to do has been to
see what code ox-context returns for the org tables. The answer is that
there are no such problems, and one can safely put a square bracket at
the beginning of a row. It is also true that the table syntax in ConTeXt
is radically different from that in LaTeX. And there is also no problem
if I put @@context:a\[b]@@. Some screenshots:
https://i.imgur.com/2k1TaU9.png
https://i.imgur.com/8i9qlEH.png
Many times I've been tempted to give ConTeXt a try, but I've always run
into two things: ConTeXt's perennially experimental status and a
horrible lack of documentation. In addition, backward compatibility is
not usually respected, since ConTeXt, although it is free software, does
not have community development as a priority, but rather the company
behind it, Pragma.
>> I've tried all the packages involved in tables that I can think of
>> (longtable, siunitx, tabularx, booktabs, array, and I don't know if I
>> forgot any) and in all of them the \empty solution works fine. It seems
>> that tabularray is the black sheep here.
>
> I think tabularray is unique with a regexp-based parser. I had a hope
> that new approach does not allow newline between \\ and its arguments,
> but unfortunately compatibility with older code is preserved in this
> aspect.
>
> From LaTeX companion I remember supertabular as an alternative for
> longtable, but I am unsure if it is alive yet.
True, I had forgotten about this package (I don't think I've ever used
it). It looks like it has a 2020 new version:
@manual{supertabular,
title = {The \texttt{supertabular} package},
subtitle = {A multi-page tables package},
author = {Johannes L. Braams},
date = {2020-02-02},
version = {4.1g},
license = {lppl1.3c},
url = {https://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/supertabular},
pkgurl = {https://ctan.org/pkg/supertabular},
}
(bibtex entry obtained from: https://www.ctan.org/pkg/ctan-bibdata)
