Re: [Groff] small bug in tbl

[Alejandro Lopez-Valencia]

At 09:57 a.m. 28/04/2003, Tadziu Hoffmann wrote:
> > Data tables usually are set with three horizontal lines with
> > different thickness, the convention is something like this:
> >
> > ---------------------------------- <- 0.5pt thick
> >         Optional table title
> > column      entry            names
> > ---------------------------------- <- 1pt thick
> > data1       data2         data3
> > ---------------------------------- <- 0.75pt thick
>
>
> Never heard of this convention (to be honest, I think it's
> rather stupid), but how about something like this (you might
> still need to fiddle with the vertical spacing somewhat):

Silly or not, it is rather a classical presentation form in academic 
typesetting. It does depend a lot on the publishing house and the material 
presented. Randomly sampling my library I can tell that...

Cornell University Press uses:

------ 1pt
head
------ 0.5pt
data
------ 0.5pt

Oxford University Press uses:

------ 1pt
head
------ 0.5pt
data
------ 1pt

while Harvard University Press does all lines in 0.5pt.

On the other hand, Cambridge University Press and Wiley do it thusly:

=
Head
_
Data
=

all 0.75pt.

Classic metal type mathematical typesetting would use one of the forms 
above and the following form for presenting mathematical and statistical 
models:

---------------------------- 1pt
head
---------------------------- 0.5pt
partial modeling equations
---------------------------- 0.5 pt
summary modeling equations
---------------------------- 1.pt

This style appears in some classical books on statistics published  in the 
late 40s and 50s I have inherited...

As you can see all are different but there is an underlaying esthetic 
theme, that you can find as well in academic journals published in the US, 
Canada, the UK, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Australia...[1]

Now, the style I mentioned in my previous email is one that was used 
frequently in the UK in the 60s and 70s, and I happen to like it better; as 
the old Cervantine saying goes: "Entre gustos no hay disgustos." ("Between 
different tastes there are no quarrels").

> .de HR

Hmmm... I never considered using a macro. Thanks!

[1] Academics *are* very conservative bunch when it comes to things 
considered trivial, such as how our work is printed (Mathematicians are a 
common exception, I am an obsessive-compulsive exception ;-).