Matrix lists

Earlier we saw a page from Werner's Nomenclature of Colours. Here's another page from the same book:

Table with of orange paint swatches plus names and related animal vegetable and mineral colours

From Werner's Nomenclature of Colours (Source)

You'll notice this list is presented in a table with gridlines and cells.

'Table' is a graphical term; the more general term for this kind of layout is a 'matrix'.

We don't want to go down a rabbit hole on matrices here, but:

Each row represents a list item.
Each column represents a possible property of that list item.

For example, in Werner's table:

In each row, the list item is a shade of orange.
In the columns, each shade has a reference number and a name, and any animal, vegetable, or mineral instances of that particular shade.

Don't want to get into a whole thing, but in colour theory, the terms 'hue', 'shade', 'tint', and 'tone' have specific meanings, but there's none that suits what we're trying to say here, which is really 'hues' and 'variations on the hue'.

You might notice that a matrix is more rigid than a list.

In a list, you can have different categories and subcategories and you can describe list items any way you want—it's very fluid.
But in a matrix, there's really only one category and a set of rigid columns defining the properties of every list item. If you want to vary the structure, you need to make another, separate matrix.

We're not going to lay out a whole matrix here. However, to practice the concept, let's imagine a matrix that we could make or might exist somewhere.

Let's think of items we could list and properties they might share.

For example:

A matrix of chocolates:

-- List items (rows) would be specific chocolates you can buy in stores.

-- Properties (columns) could include colour, sweetness, fattiness, cocoa content, and additives (like nuts, marshmallows, etc).

Writelike

Can you imagine how that table would look if it were filled in?

It'd be something like:

M&Ms: multi-coloured (shell) dark brown (chocolate), super-sweet, 6% fat content, candy shell.
Mars Bar: medium-brown, medium-sweet, 12% fat content, caramel & nougat.

Try your own.

Pick a category of items. Ideas include: clothes, food, sports, games, TV shows, music, animals, plants, geological ages in the history of Earth.
Then list properties that each item might share, but could vary from item to item.

Describe a matrix. Think of a set of items you could list, and properties you might use to compare them.

How did you go? Can you imagine what would be in your matrix if you filled it in?

That's it for list theory. Let's look at some more lists and see how these patterns appear in the wild.

Lists & hierarchies