DOCBOOK: tables in fo / pdf output: sizing of columns

[Dominik Kuhn <dkuhn at insphere dot ch>]

Hi

I'm experimenting with tables and how they appear in pdf-output. There 
some question arised:

1) If  i declare the size of the column in the colspec-tag like <colspec 
colwidth="4cm" /> i got a column with that width. So far so good. But 
I'd rather like not to specifiy the column-width and let the renderer 
(fo or tex?) choose the appropriate column-width in a HTML-Table-like 
manner. Is this possible? If yes: does someone know how?

2) Borders: Following table should (in my opinion) turn up grid-like 
with a frame around it:
      <table colsep="1" frame="all" rowsep="1">
        <title>Umgebungsvariablen</title>
        <tgroup cols="3">
          <colspec colwidth="4cm" />
          <colspec colwidth="8cm" />
          <colspec colwidth="5cm" />
          <thead>
            <row>
              <entry>Col1Head</entry>
              <entry>Col2Head</entry>
              <entry>Col3Head</entry>
            </row>
          </thead>
          <tbody>
            <row>
              <entry>Col1</entry>
              <entry>Col2</entry>
              <entry>Col3</entry>
            </row>
          </tbody>
        </tgroup>
      </table>
This table turns up with inner borders but without a frame around it. I 
wonder what's wrong. Does someone know ho to do it? Or is it a bug, 
somewhere?

3) I tried to change the padding of the columns in a driver-file the 
following way:
<xsl:attribute-set name="table.cell.padding">
  <xsl:attribute name="padding-left">12pt</xsl:attribute>
  <xsl:attribute name="padding-right">12pt</xsl:attribute>
  <xsl:attribute name="padding-top">12pt</xsl:attribute>
  <xsl:attribute name="padding-bottom">12pt</xsl:attribute>
</xsl:attribute-set>
nor
<xsl:param name="table.entry.padding" select="'12pt'"/>
worked. The enlarged padding (default is 2pt) never showed up. The 
parameter all show up in the fo/param.xsl file. Is it possible, that 
they  aren't used at all? Has someone an idea what's wrong?

---

I use the following versions:

Docbook XML 4.1.2
Docbook XML XSL Stylesheets 1.50
XSLT: Saxon 6.5
For translation from fo to pdf: MikTex (which includes pdfxmltex etc)

For the translation to fo I use a driver file, where i overwrite the 
following parameters

<xsl:param name="output.method" select="'fo'"/>
<xsl:param name="paper.type" select="'A4'"/>
<xsl:param name="double.sided" select="'0'"/>
<xsl:param name="use.extensions" select="'1'"/>
<xsl:param name="passivetex.extensions" select="'1'"/>
<xsl:param name="callout.defaultcolumn" select="'70'"/>
<xsl:param name="default.table.width" select="'160mm'"/>
<xsl:param name="tablecolumns.extension" select="1"/>
<xsl:attribute-set name="table.cell.padding">
  <xsl:attribute name="padding-left">12pt</xsl:attribute>
  <xsl:attribute name="padding-right">12pt</xsl:attribute>
  <xsl:attribute name="padding-top">12pt</xsl:attribute>
  <xsl:attribute name="padding-bottom">12pt</xsl:attribute>
</xsl:attribute-set>
<xsl:param name="table.entry.padding" select="'12pt'"/>

---

Any help is appreciated

Dominik