Multi-line code test - inline tables

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1

I’ll need to post this to compare the 2 bulletin board skins.

Courier font, with periods:

If a friend of yours confessed to sniffing glue to you but not his priest, do you think that:
… 1980 Vote
…Carter…Reagan
It is immoral… 86%…51%
It is NOT immoral… 7%… 21%
Not Sure…8%…28%

Code, with spaces:



If a friend of yours confessed to sniffing glue to you but not his priest, do you think that:
                                     1980 Vote
                                 Carter   Reagan  
It is immoral                   86%      51%
It is NOT immoral             7%       21%
Not Sure                        8%       28%

php:


If a friend of yours confessed to sniffing glue to you but not his priest, do you think that:
                                     1980 Vote
                                 Carter   Reagan  
It is immoral                   86%      51%
It is NOT immoral                7%      21%
Not Sure                         8%       28%

Under the new mobile skin, code doesn’t work, but php is readable albeit with weird colors. The period method works with a fixed font (i.e. Courier New).

While I’m here I’ll try out a poll.

Links:
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=844725

Post 572: https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=835598&page=12

2

On my screen (Firefox, OSX, old skin), the periods method looks like it works correctly. The PHP method mostly lines up the same way as the periods, but with slight differences, to its detriment. The code method has larger differences, to its greater detriment. Did you use tab characters at all, or was it all just spaces? Was the text inside the tags exactly the same in both tagged cases?

3

On my screen (Chrome, Windows, old skin) neither the code nor php line up quite right. Php is better, but the characters are blue and green.

4

I just used spaces

Code, with tabs:



What's your opinion regarding the aqua butterfly?
				1980 Vote
				Carter   Reagan  
It is immoral			86%	 51%
It is NOT immoral		7%	21%
Not Sure			8%	28%

php, with tabs:


What's your opinion regarding the aqua butterfly?
					1980 Vote
					Carter   Reagan  
It is immoral			86%	 51%
It is NOT immoral		7%	21%
Not Sure				8%	28%

Tabs are harder to work with, since they need to be added in a text editor. Hitting tab while typing in the board’s message box brings you to the “Submit Reply” button.

In the old style skin at least, php can have rather erratic coloring. Apostrophe-s apparently made the following characters red, which isn’t great for the color-blind or the aesthetically sensitive.

5

Huh, I was expecting use of tabs to make things more screwed up. But with the tabs, the code tag works perfectly, under the old skin (but the php version with tabs is screwy).

From what I know, all of these should work equally well. So apparently what I know is inadequate. Anyone with better insight into how these tags actually work?

6

To be clear, misalignment can be fixed with repeated previews. Remaining misalignment above is probably due to my laziness.

Under the new skin code-tagging is fubar, while php-tagging just gives odd colors. The Courier font system with periods is effective, though slightly more time consuming.

Until TPTB fix the bug in the mobile skin, I’ll probably switch to php, though the colors are sometimes unfriendly to the colorblind.
Hijack!
According to Wiki, [INDENT][INDENT]"PHP is a server-side scripting language designed for web development but also used as a general-purpose programming language. It is originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994,[3] the PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group.[4] PHP originally stood for Personal Home Page,[3] but it now stands for the recursive acronym PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor[5].

PHP code may be embedded into HTML code, or it can be used in combination with various web template systems, web content management systems, and web frameworks. "[/INDENT][/INDENT]

I see from the web that php-tagging can be a little wonky in vBulletin: PHP Closing Tags - vBulletin Community Forum

Excel paste:

Hiddey	Hiddey
hi hi hi	hohoho

Democrats 24 76
Republicans 55 45

Excel paste:

Hiddey	Hiddey
hi hi hi	hohoho

Democrats 24 76
Republicans 55 45

Excel paste into code:



	Hiddey	Hiddey
	hi hi hi	hohoho
Democrats	24	76
Republicans	55	45

Excel paste into php:


	Hiddey	Hiddey
	hi hi hi	hohoho
Democrats	24	76
Republicans	55	45

Excel paste into php, edited in textpad ~4 times:


	       Hiddey	  Hiddey
	       hi hi hi	hohoho
Democrats	  24		76
Republicans	55		45

Honestly, tabs are a PITA in this context. Spacing is easier as it can be eddited in the board’s message box. Though the 1st pass will be in my text editor.

7

Sometimes I copy a single tab to the clipboard and then use paste as often as necessary to get around this.

8

I can’t answer the poll, since I intend to continue using CODE where appropriate. If you want to view my posts, select the “v3.7.3 Restore Sanity” option in the lower-left of this page.

America invaded the continent of Europe successfully in 1944; America landed a man on the Moon, and brought him safely back to Earth. Call me a giddy optimist, but I hope America is still great enough to install a tiny already-published patch into the SDMB script.

9

Classic skin user here. The php and code versions fail, on my computer, to render in monospace; hence nothing lines up worth shit. It might be a setting in my browser for default fonts or something. (I seem to recall it working better once upon a time).

The periods version in courier new is much nicer and probably more bulletproof-reliable in multiple environments.

10

What’s your opinion regarding the aqua butterfly?
                    1980 Vote
                  Carter  Reagan  
It is immoral       86%     51%
It is NOT immoral    7%     21%
Not Sure             8%     28%

Note to self: The non-breaking space gets destroyed by vBulletin, but the figure space doesn’t seem to on Chrome/Windows. After I post, I’ll check on Safari/iPhone. [Edit: The figure space on Safari/iPhone isn’t quite the same width as some of the other characters in Courier New. Hmm.]

11

Huh–thanks for turning me on to the intricacies of what I thought was the ascii space.

12

I am the walrus.

13

____I found a convenient way to create blank __________ space, like for indented paragraphs, by simply using white underscores. Though, using them to construct tables might be more work than they are worth.