Table-oriented programming is, on the surface, an extremely high level of programming language support for tables. Most languages don't even get close to this level of support. The common language which has the highest level of support, SQL, doesn't support all the features desired by the TOP (Table-Oriented Programming) aficionados.
These features include:
- First-class language treatment of tables and views
- Backend neutrality -- To change the backend should be a small change to the code, even if we're moving from an in-memory structure to a replicating SQL database
So far so good -- but now you may be wondering Why Table-Oriented Programming?