1.6 See it differently

Exploring

Text underneath; the representation that fits the job.

After 1.0. Version numbers mark the intended order, not dates or paid upgrades; scope is provisional and may change with evidence and demand. Checked against the development repository on 15 October 2026.

In short

Text underneath, with the view that fits the job. A CSV or TSV file can be shown as a table as well as raw text.

Work on cells, rows and columns, paste rectangles, and sort or filter the view without touching the file. Large files stay quick because only the rows on screen are drawn.

In practice

Open a large CSV export and filter the view to one customer. The file on disk is unchanged until you edit a cell.

Why it isn’t simple

  • CSV isn’t one format. Separators, quoting, line breaks inside quoted cells, text encodings and whether there’s a header row all vary between programs. A table view has to read each file as it is and write back exactly what it read.
  • Data files can be huge. An export can run to hundreds of thousands of rows. Showing it as a table means drawing only what’s on screen and editing a cell without rereading the whole file.
  • Looking differently mustn’t change anything. Sorting and filtering have to stay in the view, separate from the text, so the file keeps its own order until you actually edit it.
  • Generalising too early is expensive. The plan builds a shared system for other formats only once real formats show what they have in common.

What it won’t do

  • Sorting and filtering change the view, never the file.
  • Only what real formats prove they share becomes a general system.

What it covers

1.6See it differently

Exploring

  • CSV/TSV Raw ↔ Table
  • Cell, row/column operations and rectangular paste
  • Non-destructive view sorting/filtering and virtualization
  • Extract only the shared representation boundary proved by real formats

Depends on Edit it naturally; Edit more of it.

Product direction, October 2026Plan reference 1.6

Builds on

Leads to

What the labels mean

Exploring
to be re-checked once earlier versions prove the approach.