New(?) use for common tables: Extract full row or col content

Developers
#1

[Disclaimer: Is this old hat?]

The following is a new(?) tidbit for how to present information with a common table. It is actually not a TW matter, but the tidbit should be super simple to implement with TW:

This table presentes a school curriculum (not made with TW). It shows grades 1-6 as rows and subjects as columns. Each table cell shows a link to the intersecting data, i.e a page with the text for the specific subject at that that grade… but that is not what I’m after.

Rather, I found it interesting that when clicking the column header you’re linked to a page showing the contents from all the cells for that column. It’s as if you spliced out the column to look at it closer. And the same for rows; click the row header and go to a page with all horizontal cells contents.

Translated to Tiddlyese: Click a tables column or row header to navigate to a tiddler showing all transcluded cells for that column or row.

This use of headers in tables is new to me, still it feels so “obvious” that I’m wondering if it is?


@teachers - the page is a now defunct UK version of the super impressive, and very much alive, Core Knowledge Curriculum project, based on the ideas from E.D Hirsch, Daniel Willingham, etc.

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[IDEA] Extract Feature in The TiddlyWiki Core
#2

Only in hindsight. It makes a great deal of sense, and it’s possible I’ve even used it before, but I’ve certainly never seen it as a general principal. And you’re right, this should be almost trivial to accomplish in TW.

Also, as to whether it’s obvious, I think of an old chestnut that’s gone around the science/math tech communities for years:

The professor (Pauli, Von Neuman, Hardy, Feynmann, you name it) was lecturing along, and said, “It’s obvious that [something or other]” and a student pipes up, “I don’t see why.” The professor stops and stares at the board for a minute… two minutes… five minutes. The class ends with the prof still starting at the board. The next day, the prof spends the class in an abstruse lecture that leaves the students breathless, struggling to keep up, finishing up with the statement under question. Says the prof, “See, I knew it was obvious.”

#3

This reminds me of bimlas’ Property Comparison Table. Clicking a header in the #category: Music table leads to a tiddler with links to all related properties in that row/column. This could transclude content rather than just show links.

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#4

https://eventcalendar.tiddlyhost.com/

Check this calendar…in this if you click on the checkbox at the beginning of each row(corresponding to each week), the calendar will only show the days of that particular week only.

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#5

Yeah, I’ve been doing versions of this with table and row headers for a while:

https://aikido.tiddlyhost.com/

To me, this is part of the same principle as making all tag nodes function as useful windows into that tag: if there’s a meaningful word somewhere — anywhere, including a table column header — there should be zero barrier to opening up whatever is connected to that concept.

The only exception in practice, for me, is with table row headers that function to toggle sort order. (Even then, I’d eventually love to set up easy hover/click separation of a column’s sort-button affordance from the column header word as link — perhaps one has definitional notes, or notes about how that value is calculated, etc.)

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#6

Just for fun: http://scott.sauyet.com/Tiddlywiki/Demo/TableTest/.

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#7

Yup, you guys are showing some impressive use cases involving this! :grin:

@Scott_Sauyet - your emulation of that site shows how they ought to have done it :grin:

Thanks everyone!

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