RST output: Generate simple-style tables if possible

[kaushalmodi]

See the original request on Google Groups for details.

Here's my original message copy/pasted from that thread:

---

I am trying to use Org mode to document few Nim (https://nim-lang.org) packages. Nim has an internal HTML documentation generator that parses ReST markup docs and doc-strings.

So I am doing:

pandoc foo.org -o foo.rst

to export Org docs to ReST.

This works mostly fine except that the Nim document generator doesn't parse the grid-style ReST tables generated by Pandoc.

Example:

This style of ReST tables is parsed fine by the Nim doc generator:

  =======  =========
  Option   Meaning
  -------  ---------
  ``+``    All numbers (including positive ones) are preceded by a sign.
  ``-``    Only negative numbers are preceded by a sign.
  *SPACE*  Negative numbers are preceded by a sign, positive numbers are preceded by a space.
  =======  =========

But this style (grid-style) is not:

    +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
    | Option                            | Meaning                           |
    +===================================+===================================+
    | ``+``                             | All numbers (including positive   |
    |                                   | ones) are preceded by a sign.     |
    +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
    | ``-``                             | Only negative numbers are         |
    |                                   | preceded by a sign.               |
    +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
    | *SPACE*                           | Negative numbers are preceded by  |
    |                                   | a sign, positive numbers are      |
    |                                   | preceded by a space.              |
    +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+

Here is the Org source:

  | Option    | Meaning                                                                              |
  |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
  | =+=       | All numbers (including positive ones) are preceded by a sign.                        |
  | =-=       | Only negative numbers are preceded by a sign.                                        |
  | /SPACE/   | Negative numbers are preceded by a sign, positive numbers are preceded by a space.   |

Is there a way to choose the former style of ReST table when exporting from Org?

If not, would you please add this feature?

Thanks!

---

To which, @jgm replied:

In principle, we could change the RST writer so it produces the simple tables when the contents of the table are simple enough (no block structure, no overly long lines).

[kaushalmodi]

Ref: nim-lang/Nim#6429

[kaushalmodi]

@jgm Thank you! Now I'm desperately waiting for a static binary including this commit. Many thanks!

[rpuntaie]

pandoc -f docx -t rst+grid_tables doc.docx does still produce simple table output.

What would be the command line to have grid_table output for RST, as it was before this change?