[XeTeX] table indentation

[Mike Maxwell]

Ross Moore wrote:
> You just set the table inside a box, and measure it,
> before inserting it onto the page (or doing something else).
> 
> In TeX primitives, the procedure is:

I asked a similar question on this list (and a couple other lists) about 
a year ago, but got no replies at that time.  I have to think that this 
topic (getting tables to *automatically* fit on a page, or 
*automatically* use a package that enables them to run onto successive 
pages with appropriate headings) comes up more these days, since there 
are non-manual ways to generate documents.  Michiel Kamermans' scenario 
was the automatic generation of tables from web data; I've also heard of 
people generating documents where the tabular data comes from a 
database.  In our case, the xelatex docs are converted from DocBook.  In 
all these cases, it is undesirable to have to hand-edit the xelatex code 
after the conversion, because that would need to do that every time the 
source data changed.

I wonder if you (or someone) would be interested in creating a package 
that would do what you have outlined in your email: create a table in 
latex, then test its size; based on the size, it would automagically 
choose whether to set the table in an ordinary floating table 
environment, turn it sideways, or run it over successive pages, using 
existing packages (supertabular,...).  I guess there would be a number 
of options, depending on whether the user considered it to be acceptable 
to reduce the space between columns, the font size, etc.

I know I would be indebted!
-- 
    Mike Maxwell
    What good is a universe without somebody around to look at it?
    --Robert Dicke, Princeton physicist