Consider Booktabs for Tables

[hochleitner]

Stephan Dreiseitl suggested that we take a look at the Booktabs package for typesetting the tables in the thesis tutorial document.

Here are some arguments why this might be a good idea: https://nhigham.com/2019/11/19/better-latex-tables-with-booktabs/

I'm not much of an expert in this matter, but these tables do have a more clean look, and it seems like publishers are using them.

In the course of this, it might also be a good idea to include multicolumn and multirow since these are used quite often.

[imagingbook]

Sure, booktabs adds some helpful features (I have been using it myself). Personally I don't consider its look a great improvement over the original LaTeX table layout (which is admittedly poor). I agree that vertical rules are often unnecessary but the strict recommendation against I find too extreme. (And they look really bad when used with booktabs.) So I guess I am uncertain what to suggest ...

[hochleitner]

I'm no expert myself, but from what Stephan suggested, vertical rules are something you want to avoid. I'll look at the package and experiment with it in a branch. Then we can decide if we like it or not.

[imagingbook]

Good idea. I hope you can find a better table example than the one we have now ;-)