mdtablebuilder converts markdown lists to either LaTeX or HTML.

Maintaining tables with text in a text file format (markdown, html, latex, etc) is not simple.

• Markdown tables formats are very varied and not universally supported by all platforms (github only support a couple afaik).
• Markdown tables poorly support multi-lines cells.
• Markdown tables are unreadable if the table doesn't fit in the editor screen (soft break).
• Markdown tables require editor plugins to edit efficiently (ex: emacs table mode, vim tables).
• Markdown tables are hard to parse and export.
• HTML (or LaTeX) tables require the HTML (or LaTeX) syntax to maintain the table. HTML inside a markdown file breaks the simplicity of the markdown syntax.
• HTML and LaTeX tables can also be hard to read if quite large.

1. Maintain lists in Markdown. Prefix list entries with column name.
2. Run mdtablebuilder to export to either LaTeX or HTML.

./mdtablebuilder -v headers="Header1;Header2;Header3" [-v fmtout=html] file.md

where:

• "Header1;Header2;Header3" are the column names you want to appear in the exported table.
• file.md is the markdown file you want to extract the table from.
• -v fmtout=html is an optional argument to generate an HTML output instead of a LaTeX output (default).

• gawk

• Note the use of the two HTML comments to delimit the list.
• Each block of list, separated by a new line, represent a row in the resulting table.
• The column the element goes in is indicated by the text before the ":".

<!-- MDLISTTAB_START -->
# Android Data Protection Solutions

 * Project: Solution1 [^ref1]
   * Android (kernel) versions: 2.1
   * Granularity: File
   * Req. App. Changes: Limited to SMS, MMS, Email
   * Req. Sys. Changes: YES
   * Trusts App: NO
   * Trusts System: YES
   * Trusts Hardware: YES

 * Project: Solution2 [^ref2]
   * Android (kernel) versions: 2.2.1 (2.6.32)
   * Granularity: Two groups of Apps
   * Approach: Android middleware isolation + Tomoyo
   * Req. App. Changes: NO
   * Req. Sys. Changes: YES
   * Trusts App: NO
   * Trusts System: YES
   * Trusts Hardware: YES

 * Project: Solution3 [^ref3]
   * Android (kernel) versions: 2.1
   * Granularity: App
   * Approach: Application level policy to control other app access
   * Req. App. Changes: YES (adds a policy)
   * Req. Sys. Changes: YES (Partially)
   * Trusts App: NO
   * Trusts System: YES
   * Trusts Hardware: YES

 * Project: Solution4 [^ref4]
   * Android (kernel) versions: 4.0.4
   * Granularity: Groups of Apps + system service data
   * Approach: Policy based Android middleware + kernel hardening
   * Req. App. Changes: NO
   * Req. Sys. Changes: YES
   * Trusts App: NO
   * Trusts System: YES
   * Trusts Hardware: YES

<!-- MDLISTTAB_END -->

• The command:

# Generate LaTeX table from Markdown list in file test.md, with columns "Project;Granularity;Req. App. Changes;Req. Sys. Changes;Trusts App;Trusts System;Trusts Hardware"
./mdtablebuilder -v headers="Project;Granularity;Req. App. Changes;Req. Sys. Changes;Trusts App;Trusts System;Trusts Hardware;" test.md

generates:

\begin{table}
\caption{Android Data Protection Solutions}
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|}
Project	 & Granularity	 & Req. App. Changes	 & Req. Sys. Changes	 & Trusts App	 & Trusts System	 & Trusts Hardware\\
Solution1 \cite{ref1}	 & File	 & Limited to SMS, MMS, Email	 & YES	 & NO	 & YES	 & YES\\
Solution2 \cite{ref2}	 & Two groups of Apps	 & NO	 & YES	 & NO	 & YES	 & YES\\
Solution3 \cite{ref3}	 & App	 & YES (adds a policy)	 & YES (Partially)	 & NO	 & YES	 & YES\\
Solution4 \cite{ref4}	 & Groups of Apps + system service data	 & NO	 & YES	 & NO	 & YES	 & YES\\
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{table}

• The command:

# Same for HTML
./mdtablebuilder -v fmtout=html -v  headers="Project;Granularity;Req. App. Changes;Req. Sys. Changes;Trusts App;Trusts System;Trusts Hardware;" test.md

generates:

Android Data Protection Solutions