Grid Problems
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg93994] Grid Problems
- From: "David Park" <djmpark at comcast.net>
- Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2008 07:01:36 -0500 (EST)
Problems with Grid have not been fixed in Version 7.
One problem is that ItemSize does not work if the last row contains Spanning
elements.
Grid[{{a, b, c}, {d, e, f}, {g, SpanFromLeft, i}},
Frame -> All,
ItemSize -> {2, 3}]
A second problem is that nested Grids do not meld into the table properly if
one uses Frame or Background on the nested portion.
Grid[{{Grid[{{a, b}, {c, d}}, Frame -> All, Background -> Orange],
e}, {f, g}},
Frame -> All]
Grid[{{Grid[{{a, b}, {c, d}}, Background -> Orange], e}, {f, g}},
Frame -> All]
Nested Grids would be a very convenient and intuitive method for designing
tables but it just does not work properly. There are many other little
quirks and problems. In general I think that the new Grid construction of
Version 6 was a very nice try but it is still a miss. It does not allow
users to precisely control things that need to be controlled in custom
tables. The options design with their emphasis on cyclic patterns of
elements is overly complicated and baroque and only encourages the kind of
'computer junk' design that should be avoided. What is needed instead are
easy methods for specifying the details of sub-blocks of the table.
Workable and rationally designed custom tables would be a nice feature to
add to Mathematica.
David Park
djmpark at comcast.net
<http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark> http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark