Does Ecomodder forum software always eats extra spaces? (Tables in posts)
 

Attempts to input tabular data always result in the forum software eating tabs and extra spaces. Is there a decent work-a-round?

What forum software package is being used here at Ecomodder?

Thanks

TestDrive -

I don't know the software version, but this seems to be universal across a lot of forum software.

When I have this problem, I used the "CODE" option. This is the "#" icon in the advanced posting mode. For example :

Here is what the above looks like in the edit box :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1229219884

I can't see where to simulate tabs. When I want to format something nice, I work it all out in Notepad (or equivalent) with a Fixed Width Font like Courier. While in Notepad I remove the tabs. Then I copy/paste it into the edit box between the CODE markers.

Kind of cumbersome, I know, but also "smart" in the situation where the weblink goes bad (wifi signal lost, DSL connection hosed, gremlins and assorted computer voodoo). For a complicated post, it's best to have the original "in process" in Notepad. Saves your bacon from having to retype everything.

CarloSW2

Thanks. That gets the job done. :)

I always just preceed everything with a series of dots.

....Like this.
......Except
........When
...........I
..............Do
...............IT
.................You
....................Can't
.......................See
.........................Those
.............................Dots.



You can quickly color the dots after the first set by clicking on the "A" directly (color selection) instead of the drop-down menu arrow to the right of it in the quick post box OR in the main Post Reply screen.

I started using dots a long time ago b/c they're unobtrusive, easy to ignore, and keep whatever formatting you've set for ANY text software, including notepad, which doesn't accept text formatting.

So even if the dots aren't colored identical to the background, it's easy for people to ignore them.

Christ -

Neat trick. TestDrive, here is what it looks like :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1229329164


CarloSW2

LOL. I can take full credit for it too, I used to do it in school so I didn't have to pay attention to all the coding necessary for formatting certain things. :D

Just remember that not all forums use a white background, some have cyan and other colors. So you have to play with screen grabs in MSPaint to grab the colors until you figure out the hexadecimal code for it, so they're camo'd.

"Poke and hope" usually fares well too.

Also, if you highlight the "blank" areas, you can see the text there (dots).

This has actually become a method of hiding keywords in emails and searchables, and has also become a way to help spammers do their job.

Pikac... erm. cfg83 - Thanks for replying the code, I forgot that part.

This

works

too.

It would be nice to have table support though.

HTML is off for security reasons, but I could create BBCODE entries to make basic tables, if people want.

So you would use them like this:

I want.

You can now make basic tables.

{table}{tr}{td}1{/td}{td}2{/td}{/tr}{tr}{td}3{/td}{td}4{/td}{/tr}{/table}

(using square brackets, not the curly ones) gets you...

1	2
3	4

But if you try to format the BBCODE nicely, it puts line breaks into the table as well in some browsers (FF, not IE), eg:

{table}
{tr}{td}1{/td}{td}2{/td}{/tr}
{tr}{td}3{/td}{td}4{/td}{/tr}
{/table}

gets you...

1	2
3	4

LOL sweet. That will help definitely with large groups of data that never fixes into columns.

Thanks a bunch. :thumbup:

So wait... that educational post... are both tables supposed to look the same? B/c I"m on FF3.0 and they look the same to me.

Also looks the same to me in FF2.0 and IE7.0

Extra lines before tables???
 

Just to try out the tables I reformatted some data that aerohead posted.
It appears that each line in the table generates a line of padding above the table?
At least that's how it appears in Firefox 2.0 and IE7.0.
Here is the post http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...html#post79080

TestDrive -

Each of your carriage returns are being honored *within* the table. When I delete the carriage returns, it works :

TABLE STARTS ON NEXT LINE

The car	Mercedes-Benz 111/III
Height	1,029mm(41.16 inches)
Width	1,688mm(67.5 inches)
Length(competition)	4,784mm(191.36 inches)
Curb Weight	1,347 kg(2,965 pounds)
...etc...	...etc...
Truncated Boat-Tail Length	700mm(28 inches)
PERFORMANCE	.
Top Speed @ Nardo Test-Track,Italy	315.157 km/h(195.398MPH)-continuous 24-hour driving
Fuel Economy	6.26 km/l(14.7mpg) @ 195.398 mph

TABLE ENDS ABOVE THIS LINE

MetroMPG -

Is there an "ignore carriage return" for line endings option?

CarloSW2

Good catch. Thanks.

Sorry, no easy fix, other than putting all the table code on a single line.

If it's a complex table, you could always build it in a text editor and strip out the CRs when you're done before you post it in the forum.

Diving into form submission code is always fun. Could be done with:

or similar before the database submission, probably inside whatever function is used to clean up the text.

Maybe you could add an "Insert Table" button to the Advanced Posting Editor.
When clicked it just inserts the material in the quote below (or something similar).
This would make it easier for people to discover putting tables in posts.

Did you guys know we could make tables?!
 

I was taught to put two spaces between my sentences. People act like this is worse than driving the speed limit or coming to complete stops. "That is obsolete! Bla bla! Rant rant! Typewriters! Monospace text!"

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Please note that the monospace spaces are wider than in True Type, while the True Type characters are larger. So, when spaces were larger, we needed two, but now that they are smaller, we only need one.
Right.

Since social relationships will continue to baffle and repulse programmers, they figured out how to end the bane of their existence! I was writing something elsewhere and it was deleting double spaces before I even submitted!

I consider this the most boring type of censorship.

Irrespective of that, I am surprised that in all of the time I have been on Ecomodder, I have never seen tables!

Tables!

Welcome to 2008 everyone!