Function matrix - show geometry, geography, curve, 3d and mm support for each function

[robe]

Here is my first draft at autogeneration from the function reference a matrix to outline functions we have and what support we have for each.

Do these categories look okay to people. I was thinking a nice checkmark or X would look better than my lame +, *, T designations.

​http://www.postgis.org/documentation/manual-1.5SVN/ch08.html#PostGIS_TypeFunctionMatrix

The issue I have is the bordering and also hmm the PDF insists on chopping off table.

Any thoughts on how to fix these issues?

[mloskot]

Great idea.

On checkmark, what about ​Tick which also has corresponding ​Unicode code?

[robe]

I like that idea. I'll try that. Wonder how that will come out in the PDF. Got the bordering looking decent now.

[robe]

Well Mateusz that was a really nice thought. Looked fine in FireFox. Even came out right in the PDF (though I still have the truncating issues in PDF), but gasp IE 7.0 just a ugly box. Even toggling the encoding to UTF-8 in IE does not work. Damn you IE.

I guess IE is just not quite as hip as I thought :(.

There is the option of using the isopub in docbook you mentioned -- ​http://www.faqs.org/docs/docbook/html/iso-pub.html , but not quite sure how that works.

[kneufeld]

I'm having the same issues with MathML in docbook and IE8. Most of the math symbols work fine in Firefox and pdf, but not in IE (at least they don't work in my IE8 install). I think we're forced to using images. Would a nice little graphic "tick" work instead?

-- Kevin

[robe]

Sure -- need 3

check mark A something (*) -- like a half-checkmark

and something for T -- not sure what symbol we should use for Paul's geography to geometry to geography transform hacks -- perhaps a small graphic of Paul :)

[mloskot]

Regina,

Sorry, no idea how to fix the IE8 problem. Graphics would work well instead. I'd look at Wikipedia/MediaWiki, they must have some nice graphics for marks.

[robe]

Actually I'm looking on one of my pcs with IE8 now and it shows!

But doesn't show on my IE7. Wonder if there is some plug-in I have on this one. So I guess its not all IE browsers.

[robe]

Okay I checked all my IE8 computers and it actually shows up fine on all of them. Also checked my Chrome browser -- fine, firefox fine. I checked all my IE7 browsers -- none show it. So it seems its only IE7 (probably IE6) that has issues. I wonder how many people use IE7. I really like the cleaness of not having to resort to images and those characters are so cute.

[kneufeld]

I still use IE6 at home since I can't stand the look and feel of IE7 and 8. I think it's a pretty good chance many are still using IE7 and it's too soon to limit the PostGIS website to IE8 and up.

Just my 2 cents.

[mloskot]

Microsoft still does support IE6, so even if I stay away of IE myself, I somewhat support Kevin's 2 cents.

The matrix renders very well for me in Firefox 3, IE8 and Google Chrome.

[robe]

Okay replaced with images. I guess with images its easier to make things colorful anyway.

​http://www.postgis.org/documentation/manual-1.5SVN/ch08.html#PostGIS_TypeFunctionMatrix

I think its fairly clear now the geography transform hacks -- so now I don't care so much how many of those hacks Paul puts in.

[mloskot]

I've got comment to ​my blog post that may be useful to solve the IE8 issue:

Berend writes:

A short survey shows that only the “Arial Unicode MS” font includes checkmark glyphs. Apparently Firefox has some kind of fallback mechanism in case a certain glyph does not exist. Short story: Use “font-family: Arial Unicode MS, sans-serif;” and you’ll be fine.