Grammar of Tables

Links from the show: https://realpython.com/podcasts/rpp/214/

Michael and Richard discuss the design philosophy and history behind creating display tables. We dig into the grammar of tables, the background of the project, and an ingenious way to build a collection of examples for a library.

We briefly cover how Richard and Michael started contributing to open source. We also discuss practicing data skills with challenges and resources like Tidy Tuesday.

This episode is sponsored by Mailtrap.

Topics:

• 00:00:00 – Introduction
• 00:02:00 – Michael’s background in open source
• 00:04:07 – Rich’s background in open source
• 00:05:27 – Advice for someone starting out
• 00:08:55 – What do you mean by the term “display” table
• 00:11:32 – What components were missing from other tables?
• 00:13:31 – Using examples to explain features
• 00:16:09 – Why was there an absence of this functionality in Python?
• 00:19:35 – A progressive approach and the grammar of tables
• 00:21:26 – Sponsor: Mailtrap
• 00:22:01 – The design philosophy of great tables
• 00:25:31 – Nanoplots, spark lines, and column spanners
• 00:27:06 – Building a gallery of examples
• 00:28:56 – Heat mapping cells and automatically adjusting text color
• 00:32:54 – Output formats for the tables
• 00:34:46 – Building in accessibility
• 00:36:55 – Dependencies
• 00:37:42 – What is the common workflow?
• 00:41:39 – Video Course Spotlight
• 00:43:15 – Adding graphics
• 00:46:41 – Using a table contest to get examples
• 00:49:47 – quartodoc and documenting the project
• 00:55:00 – Tidy Tuesday and data science community
• 01:00:29 – What are you excited about in the world of Python?
• 01:03:46 – What do you want to learn next?
• 01:08:05 – How can people follow the work you do online?
• 01:09:57 – Thanks and goodbye

Links from the show: https://realpython.com/podcasts/rpp/214/

Michael Chow