Add table-editing features akin to orgtbl

[Ambrevar]

Markdown table extension is frustratingly close to orgtbl: only the + differs at intersections.

orgtbl is terrifically convenient in my opinion, I would love to see similar editing features for markdown-mode.

I found a few similar discussions:

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14275122/editing-markdown-pipe-tables-in-emacs
• Support for orgtbl-mode style tables in markdown jgm/pandoc#519.

[jrblevin]

I'm also interested in this, but after looking into it I'm not sure of the best way to proceed. My first thought was to add an option for markdown-mode to automatically load orgtbl-mode. Then we could either 1) "advise" the realignment functions to reformat the tables (i.e., changing -+- to -|- for starters) or 2) rebind the most important orgtbl-mode keys like C-c | and C-c C-c to wrappers that call out to orgtbl and then do the reformatting.

What I realized quickly is that when loading orgtbl-mode, the minor mode keymap overrides the markdown-mode keymap, so a lot of things are unavailable. For example, markdown-mode defines several keys under the C-c C-c prefix. Yet, if I change orgtbl-mode-map directly to remove C-c C-c, then it would be changed everywhere orgtbl-mode is used (not just in the markdown-mode buffer). Does anyone know the best way to handle this?

[Ambrevar]

I don't think making use of the high-level org-mode functions is a good idea.
I guess going lower level is the way to go. If org-mode's API is poorly design, that might mean reimplementing everything from scratch...

[jrblevin]

Yeah, I also don't like the idea, but it seemed like the fastest way to get something working for people. If it means re-implementing it, then I likely won't be doing that in the foreseeable future (too many more fundamental things to do on markdown-mode). Perhaps for now I'll write up some directions about a simple setup with advice that does 90% of what most people need through orgtbl, which can be toggled on and off as needed.