Add support for formatting codes in table cells

[tbrowder]

Pod formatting codes are either ignored or handled improperly in table cells.

[atroxaper]

It is not supported in Grammar yet.

[tisonkun]

@atroxaper could you please provide a sample case? what the pod6 code is and how you wish it to be(after render)

[AlexDaniel]

@W4anD0eR96 here is an example: https://docs.perl6.org/language/variables#Dynamic_variables
That table contains a bunch of pod6 formatting and is currently rendered incorrectly.

[tisonkun]

The root of this problem is not in this repo, but that Pod::Block::Table treats context inside as raw text, see below

Pod::Block::Named{:name("pod")}
  Pod::Block::Table
    $["\$*INIT-INSTANT", "An Instant object representing program startup time. In particular, this is when the core code starts up, so the value of \$*INIT-INSTANT may be a few milliseconds earlier than C<INIT now> or even C<BEGIN now> executed in your program."]
    $["\$*TZ", "The system's local timezone offset, as the number of B<seconds> from GMT"]
    $["\$*CWD", "The Current Working Directory."]
    $["\$*KERNEL", "Which kernel am I running under?"]

[tisonkun]

There is a really ugly way to fix it. By convert

https://github.com/perl6/Pod-To-HTML/blob/0ae43c1fd1c07fac0aafdbc2f074c2b6a8bd6489/lib/Pod/To/HTML.pm#L405-L416

into

    @r.push(
        '<tbody>',
        $node.contents.map(-> $line {
            '<tr>',
            $line.list.map(-> $cell {
              use MONKEY-SEE-NO-EVAL;
              my $local-pod = EVAL("=begin pod\n"~$cell ~ "\n=end pod\n\$=pod");
                "<td>{node2html($local-pod)}</td>"
            }),
            '</tr>'
        }),
        '</tbody>',
        '</table>'
    );

I don't want to apply it at all.

[tisonkun]

@tbrowder works on rakudo/rakudo#1240 , that will fix this issue.

[tbrowder]

I’m afraid my work will not help this problem. The only thing my PR does, in regards to format codes, is remove in-line Z<> comments. I can think of some other solutions but it will require some help from core devs. How about writing a new sub named somethng like ‘tablecell2html’ which would take care of the formatting?

Update

After my PR #1240 is merged (if ever), I have proposed a fix for this issue (and volunteered to work on it) on IRC #perl6-dev. So far haven’t received any response, but they are real busy fixing blockers for the next rakudo release.

[tbrowder]

Rakudo changes after merge of recent PR #1300 originally by llfourne (made compatible by softmoth) have made formatting codes easier to deal with.

This issue should be revisited.

I'll try to take it on after I get one other p6 doc project working (Language grouping and sorting).

[finanalyst]

As mentioned by TisonKun, the problem is not in this module.
All content of cells is given as text. I think it should be returned as a Pod::Block, which would then allow the Pod renderer to pass the contents to another handler. If the Block contains formating code, this can then be rendered as needed. Currently, a Pod renderer cannot detect what is inside a text cell without parsing the content. Parsing content should not be happening in the renderer.

Simple test:

    =begin table :class<sorttable>

      H1    H2
      --    --
      col1  B<col2>

      I<col1>  col2

    =end table

should lead to something like

/
    '<table class="pod-table sorttable">'
    \s*   '<thead>'
    \s*     '<tr>'
    \s*       '<th>H1</th>'
    \s*       '<th>H2</th>'
    \s*     '</tr>'
    \s*   '</thead>'
    \s*   '<tbody>'
    \s*     '<tr>'
    \s*       '<td><strong>col1</strong></td>'
    \s*       '<td>col2</td>'
    \s*     '</tr>'
    \s*     '<tr>'
    \s*       '<td><em>col1</em></td>'
    \s*       '<td>col2</td>'
    \s*     '</tr>'
    \s*   '</tbody>'
    \s* '</table>'
    /

[JJ]

But that would be at the Rakudo level, right? That's @tbrowder's turf.

[tbrowder]

Roger. A know problem on my TODO list.

[JJ]

Is there any change here?

[tbrowder]

Not by me, and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to do it. The grammar is very messy in that area and it needs a large refactoring to make it feasible IMHO. In fact, I'm not sure it was ever in the original design because, in S26, it is not mentioned in the section on tables (which are described as a simple object: "Simple tables [emphasis added] can be specified in Pod using a =table block....").

Additionally, Damian (the S26 author) says of formatting codes, "Formatting codes provide a way to add inline mark-up to a piece of text within the contents of (most types of [emphasis added]) Pod block (including all declarator blocks [emphasis added])." [another NYI feature!]

[coke]

When this is resolved please ping the referenced Raku/doc ticket so we can consider re-adding the links.

[JJ]

Going over open issues, is there anything that can be done here?