NAME

       freetable - tool for making HTML tables generation easier

VERSION

       This manpage describes version 2.3 of freetable.

       It might be not 100% accurate if you use different version.

SYNOPSIS

       freetable [options] filename

       or

       freetable [options]

       Possible options are :

       -h, --help     Print usage info and exit

       -V, --version  Print version information and exit

       -c, --comment  Insert comment before every cell to point its location

       -b, --no-nbsp  Do not insert   to empty cells for lowered-3D apperance

       -w, --warning  Print a warning before each generated table that you should not change it.
       You should change its source.

       -l, --location Substitute <row> and <col> flags inside table with correct cell's location

       -m, --macro [program]
                      Use macro procesor to proces cells content (default: m4)

WARNING

        DO NOT USE MACRO PROCESSOR OVER UNSURE SOURCE
        M4 MAY BE USED TO COMPROMISE YOUR SECURITY
        FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS EXEC :

       info m4 'UNIX commands' syscmd

DESCRIPTION

       This is free replacement of wwwtable

       HTML is great language, but have one horrible flaw : tables. I spent many hours looking at
       HTML source I just written and trying to guess which cell in source is which in browser.

       If this also describes you, then read this manpage and your pain will stop.

       Program read HTML source from either stdin or file. Then it searches for line starting
       table:

           <wwwtable [options]>

       Then it analyzes table, put correct HTML table in this place and continue searching for
       the next table.

TABLE SYNTAX

       It is very easy:

           wwwtable :
           <wwwtable [wwwtable_options]>
           [preamble]
           [cell]
           [cell]
           ...
           </wwwtable>

       wwwtable_options will be passed to <table> tags. There is no magic inside preamble. It can
       be any HTML text. It will be simply put in front of table.

       cell is either normal_cell (<td> tag) or header_cell (<th> tag).  At least it was this way
       in freetable 1.x.  See the next section for alternative cell address syntax.

           normal_cell :
           (row,col) cell_options
           cell_content

           header_cell :
           ((row,col)) cell_options
           cell_content

       cell_options will be passed to cell tag. There is magic inside colspan and rowspan keys
       are parsed to make correct table.

       cell_content can be anything. It may contain text, tags, and even nested wwwtables.

       If you use -m (or --macro) option, it will be passed thru m4(1), with <row> and <col> set
       to adress of curent cell

       row and col are either numbers locating cells, expressions relative to previous cell or
       regular expresions to match few of them. Unlike wwwtable, freetable can use regular
       expresions for header cells. Also * can be used, and it mean .* really.

       Relative expressions are :

       = or empty means : the same as previous

       + or +X means : one and X more than previous

       - or -X means : one and X less than previous

       If many definisions adress the same cell all options and contents are concatenated in
       order of apperance.

       If you want to use only regular expresions you must tell program about the last cell :

           <wwwtable>
           (*,1)
           these are colums 1
           (1,*)
           these are rows 1
           (4,4)
           </wwwtable>

ALTERNATIVE CELL ADDRESS SYNTAX

       It is inconvenient to specify cell address as regular expression.  So in freetable 2.0 two
       new methods were introduced.  Both can be used to either normal or header cells.

       Full bakward compatibility is preserved.  To preserve it, new syntax had to be introduced.
       Unfortunatelly, you can't specify row address using one method, and column address using
       another.  To come around this, both new methods are very liberal and allow you to use =,
       +, -, +X -X and null string with the same meaning as they have in old addressing method.

       Unlike regular expression method, new methods will find out the last cell automatically.

   EXPLICIT RANGES
           (rowrange;colrange) cell_options
           cell_content

       Syntax for both rowrange and colrange is like: 1-2,4-7,9,12.  Duplicates will be
       eliminated. For purpose of relative addresses last given number is used. So if you write

           (1-100,32;1)
           foo
           (+,)
           bar

       Cell (33,1) will contain `foobar' and all others only `foo'.

   ARBITRARY PERL CODE
           ({code for rows},{code for tables}) cell_options
           cell_content

       You can use arbitrary Perl one-liner as long as it matches our not very intelligent
       regular expressions and evaluates to list.  Unfortunatelly there isn't any regular
       expression for Perl code, but as long as it doesn't contain },{ and }) it should work.
       Example:

           <wwwtable>
           ({grep {$_%3 == 1} 1..100},{1..2,4})
           foo
           </wwwtable>

       Will evaluate to 100 rows x 4 columns table with `foo' in every 1st, 2nd and 4th column of
       every row with number equal 1 modulo 3.

       If you want to use "arbitrary code" in one part of address and explicit range in the
       other, change - into .. in defenition of range, and put in between { and }.

       If you want to use "arbitrary code" in one part of address and regular expression in the
       other, you have to write {grep {/expression/} from..to}.  Unfortunatelly, in this case you
       have to specify size of the table explicitely.

INCOMPATIBILITIES WITH WWWTABLE

       If you was formerly user of wwwtable and want to change your tool, you should read this.
       Most of this is about regexps handling.  Notice also that wwwtable couldnt do location
       tags substitution nor macroprocesing.

       Option -w has completely oposite meaning. We dont print warnings by default, and -w or
       --warning is used to force warnings.

       Table header fields can be specified by regexps ex :

           ((1,*))

       It was impossible in wwwtable.

       Axis counters are 100% orthogonal. This mean that code :

           (*,1) width=30
           (*,2) width=35
           (*,3) width=40
           (=,=)
           Foo

       Foo will appear in 3rd column. If you wanted it to be in 1st you should write :

           (*,1) width=30
           (*,2) width=35
           (*,3) width=40
           (=,1)
           Foo

       or

           (*,) width=30
           (*,+) width=35
           (*,+) width=40
           (=,1)
           Foo

       In freetable 2.0 two new methods o specifying cell address were introduced. They are
       completely incompatible with wwwtable.

BUGS

       "Arbitrary Perl Code" cell address will fail on very complex Perl code.

SEE ALSO

       m4(1)

AUTHOR

       Tomasz Wegrzanowski <taw@users.sourceforge.net>