[EXT]T2D4

[Philip Taylor]

*Tables To Die For*

TeX has the versatility and flexibility
to enable you to put anything you
want, anywhere you want on the page.
But actually doing it is something else
again. Many TeX constructions are
very involved and are unlikely to be
attempted by anyone but an expert.
Tables are particularly difficult, since
the TeX rules for alignment are hard to
master. I have had a lot of questions
from secretaries who have become
quite frustrated trying to get a table to
come out properly.

This was Mike Spivak's motivation
in developing a huge macro package
which he calls Tables To Die For
(T2D4), which is sold by Personal 'lEX
($125). This macro package is so large
that it is difficult to use it in conjunction
with other very large macro packages,
and probably impossible to use
with the particularly large macro package
LaTeX. The great size is a result of
the fact that TeX is a very wordy computer
language, so you must write out
a lot of stuff in order to accomplish
anything complicated such as a table.

There are a tremendous number of
details that can be varied in the construction
of tables, and a few major
necessities like getting tables to break
over pages. Therefore, even though
the process of setting up a given table
using T2D4 is much simpler than trying
to imitate the procedures used by
Donald Knuth in The TEXbook, the bible
of the TeX industry, the fact that
there are a very large number of different

T2D4 procedures tends to be
confusing to anyone but an expert.

    TEX has the
    versatility and
    flexibility to
    enable you to
    put anything
    you want
    anywhere
    you want.

T2D4 is very useful to have around
for those occasions when you want to
make tables. Its very large size as a
macro package may mean that you will
prefer to use it in a supplementary
fashion, to prepare your tables apart
from the rest of your text.

 From /MicroSystems Journal, 1988 (vol.~4. no.~6)/
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