Re: [Docutils-users] Re: Problem with formatting of simple tables

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[Peter Sinn]
> Further reading revealed the right way to to it:
>
> ======  =====  ======
> Device  Item   Result
> ======  =====  ======
> A       1      55
> ..      2      77
> B       1      22
> ..      2      88
> ======  =====  ======

I'm glad you found that workaround.  But your original example is
interesting:

>> ======  =====  ======
>> Device  Item   Result
>> ======  =====  ======
>> A       1      55
>> ------  -----  ------
>>         2      77
>> ------  -----  ------
>> B       1      22
>> ------  -----  ------
>>         2      88
>> ======  =====  ======
>>
>> Lines with an empty cell on the left hand side do not display at
>> all.

The spec says that "cells in the first column of new rows (*not*
continuation lines) *must* contain some text", but it's definitely a
bug that no output at all is generated from these rows.  The parser
should never silently consume input; it should always produce output
of some sort, even if it's system error messages.

ISTM that if you go to the trouble of inserting row separators, your
meaning is unambiguous (notwithstanding the explicit requirement in
the spec).  I have entered this case as a bug, and expect that in
the not-too-distant future it will work properly.

--
David Goodger <http://python.net/~goodger>