Thread:Katat0nyx/@comment-15636815-20141217032053

I'm working on Infobox theme, as we discussed. Your train and wagon templates are excellent models. I'm plagiarizing as much of your code as I can, mostly to create consistency of appearance.

Yesterday, I struggled with something for quite a long time. I even took a break from the computer and just thought about it for two hours. And then it hit me. You are dealing with exactly the same issue with Infobox item. Why don't we put our heads together and see if we can find a way to knock this out?

The issue, of course, is how best to present cost data in the infobox. Since I started the thread, I'll go first.
 * Infobox train and Infobox wagon have six columns each. To provide a clean, well-aligned appearance, the "Purchasing Information" section uses the first three columns to display descriptions, right-aligned amounts, and left-aligned icons for purchases with gold, and the last three columns to do the same with gems.
 * The community desires that Infobox item and Infobox theme display Full Cost and Discounted Cost for all relevant items. Displaying descriptions, full costs, and discounted costs for both materials and gems will consume six columns and will not generate the clean appearance the other infoboxes display.
 * Generating the same clean appearance in the same way requires ten columns. This may or may not give the Cost section a "scrunched" appearance.
 * The "Offer Information" section uses only six columns. If the infobox uses ten, then some of the fields in the Offer section must use.
 * Even if we pull off all of the above without scrunching, we STILL can't generate the same clean appearance because Cost, CostSam, and CostNoSam all display the icons next to the relevant amounts. There's no way to separate the icons into their own column, as you did with the train and wagon templates.

So, how do we resolve all of this?

Out of the many ideas I've had, this is the one that comes closest to maintaining the clean appearance of the existing templates.

Each column that displays cost data would be divided into three sub-columns.
 * 1) The first sub-column would display amounts, as train and wagon do.
 * 2) The second sub-column would display icons, also as the others do.
 * 3) *The output generated by the various "Cost" templates would span over both of the above columns. This would allow the cost icons to maintain right-alignment with the XP icon, while allowing the numbers to maintain right-alignment with Level and Limit, which have no icons.
 * 4) The third sub-column would contain the extra (empty) space needed to reach to the right edge of wherever the column break is in the Offer section.

The above idea has at least three drawbacks: It requires that the infobox contain 14(!) columns, figuring out the precise spacing of the 14 columns will be a pain in the ass, and the final output probably still won't be aligned perfectly.

I mentioned that this idea is the one that comes closest to maintaining the same appearance as the existing templates. That doesn't mean that it's the best idea, or even the only one that will achieve an appearance similar to the others. It's just the only idea that's come to my brain that almost creates the desired effect.

Okay, I'm done. Your turn. 