Markdown tables

A table is the right shape when several items share the same criteria: options
and their trade-offs, machines and their state, steps and their owners. It is
the wrong shape for a single list, for prose, or for cells that need more than a
short phrase.

Procedure

1. Decide the axis. One row per item being compared, one column per
   criterion. If a criterion applies to one item only, it is not a column: say
   it in a sentence under the table.
2. Keep it narrow. Four columns at most, six rows at most on a phone-sized
   screen. Beyond that, split into two tables or drop the least useful
   criterion.
3. Write short cells. A cell is a word, a number, or a phrase of a few
   words. No sentence, no line break, no nested list. A detail that does not
   fit goes in a note below.
4. Align numbers. Right-align a column of numbers (---:), left-align text
   (:---). Use the same unit in a whole column, written in the header
   (Size (MB)), never repeated in every cell.
5. Mark the empty. An unknown value is —, never a blank cell: a blank
   reads as a layout error.
6. Introduce it. One sentence before the table says what it compares. One
   sentence after it says what to conclude, when there is a conclusion.

Shape

| Option   | Cost (€/month) | Setup | Notes            |
|:---------|---------------:|:------|:-----------------|
| Hosted   |             12 | 5 min | Backups included |
| Self-run |              0 | 1 h   | —                |

Do not

• Do not put a table inside a bullet list, or a list inside a cell.
• Do not use a table to lay out two columns of text.
• Do not repeat the header row in the middle of a table.