[docbook-apps] table formatting with SGML/DSSSL toolchain

[Nandu Shah <nandu at zvolve dot com>]

I've run into some behavior with table formatting that I'm having
trouble working around.  I'd be happy to devote some time to fixing
code, if only I knew what to fix.

I'm using DocBook 4.2, OpenJade 1.3.2, OpenSP 1.5, DocBook DSSSL 1.78,
and JadeTeX 3.12 (as part of the TeX Live distro) on Red Hat 7.2,
Mandrake 9.2, and Solaris 7 and 8.  I have three problems (in order of
importance):

     (1) Lists in tables don't format well; every item after the first
         gets extra indentation and extra space-after (which
         spacing="compact" doesn't seem to affect).

     (2) Lines in a literallayout in a table cell sometimes wrap
         (which I think is actually a good thing), and when they do,
         the line break isn't preserved.

     (3) Relative column widths produce unpredictable layouts.

Problem (3) isn't terribly critical; I can get what I want through
trial and error.  Problems (1) and (2) are both critical to my
document, but for the moment, only problem (1) is holding up
production.  Where should I start looking at code?  My guess is
OpenJade or JadeTeX, but I'd be happier if I could just work on the
stylesheets.  Would I be better off with the XML/XSL toolchain?  Here
is a minimal table that exhibits problem (1):

      <table>
        <title>Problem Table</title>
        <tgroup cols="1">
          <tbody>
            <row>
              <entry><itemizedlist>
                  <listitem>
                    <para>item 1: short description</para>
                  </listitem>
                  <listitem>
                    <para>item 2: short description</para>
                  </listitem>
                  <listitem>
                    <para>item 3: short description</para>
                  </listitem>
              </itemizedlist></entry>
            </row>
          </tbody>
        </tgroup>
      </table>

If it would help, I'd be happy to provide all the intermediate files
that OpenJade and JadeTeX generate for this, as well as the final .ps
or .pdf.  But since I get the same results on all of my platforms, my
guess is this is easily reproduced.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

-- 
Nandu Shah, Senior Engineer
Zvolve Systems, Inc.
http://www.zvolve.com/


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