Tables are great for lots of things. We mainly work with:
- TSV (and CSV) files in directories, with version control
- spreadsheets: Excel and Google Sheets
- SQL databases
We want to move smoothly back and forth between these. Once we can do that, we want some standard tools and workflows.
This discussion informs the (re)design of:
- The Virtues of Tables: benefits of TSV, spreadsheets, and SQL
- Table Types: connecting TSV to spreadsheets to SQL
- Working with Tables: table-based operations and workflows we want