diff --git a/doc/command-vs-expression-mode.md b/doc/command-vs-expression-mode.md
index 28fc1678d..73bfa4396 100644
--- a/doc/command-vs-expression-mode.md
+++ b/doc/command-vs-expression-mode.md
@@ -5,27 +5,76 @@ default_highlighter: oils-sh
 Command vs. Expression Mode
 ===========================
 
-This is an essential [syntactic concept](syntactic-concepts.html) in YSH.
+[YSH][] extends the shell **command** language with a Python-like
+**expression** language.
 
-YSH extends the shell **command** language with a Python-like **expression**
-language.
+Commands and expressions each have a **lexer mode**, which is an essential
+[syntactic concept](syntactic-concepts.html) in YSH.
 
-To implement that, the lexer enters "expression mode".
+This doc lists the places where [YSH][] switches between modes.
 
-The key difference is that when lexing commands, `unquoted` is a string, while
-`$dollar` is a variable:
+[YSH]: $xref
 
-    ls /bin/str $myvar
-
-On the other hand, when lexing expressions, `'quoted'` is a string, while
-`unquoted` is a variable:
+<div id="toc">
+</div>
 
+## Summary
+
+A main difference is whether you write strings like `unquoted` or `'quoted'`,
+and whether you write variables like `$dollar` or `unquoted`:
+
+<style>
+thead { text-align: left; }
+table {
+  width: 100%;
+  margin-left: 2em; /* match */
+}
+</style>
+
+<table>
+
+- thead
+  - Description
+  - Lexing Mode
+  - String
+  - Variable
+  - Example
+- tr
+  - Shell-Like
+  - Command
+  - `unquoted`
+  - `$dollar`
+  - ```
+    ls foo/bar $myvar
+    ```
+- tr
+  - Python-like
+  - Expression
+  - `'quoted'`
+  - `unquoted` 
+  - ```
     var s = myfunc('str', myvar)
+    ```
 
-This doc lists the places where we switch modes.
+</table>
+
+More examples:
+
+    ls foo/bar         # foo and bar are strings - command
+    var x = foo / bar  # foo and bar are the names of variables - expression
+
+And:
+
+    echo $filename.py           # $filename is a var - command
+    var x = filename ++ '.py'   #  filename is a var - expression
+
+<!--
+Shell has a similar difference:
+
+    ls foo/bar        # foo and bar are strings
+    a=$(( foo/bar ))  # foo and bar are the names of variables
+-->
 
-<div id="toc">
-</div>
 
 ## From Command Mode to Expression Mode
 
@@ -46,7 +95,7 @@ This includes *bare assignments* in Hay blocks:
 
 ### `=` and `call` keywords
 
-Likewise, everything after `=` or `::` is in expression mode:
+Likewise, everything after `=` or `call` is in expression mode:
 
     = 42 + f(x)
 
@@ -102,8 +151,8 @@ Lazy arguments:
 
 Parameters aren't expressions, but they're parsed with the same lexer:
 
-    proc p(x, y) {    # what's between () is in expression mode
-      echo "$x $y"    # back to command mode
+    proc p (x, y) {    # what's between () is in expression mode
+      echo "$x $y"     # back to command mode
     }
 
     func f(x) {
@@ -128,7 +177,7 @@ This is a command literal:
 
     var b = ^(echo $PWD)
 
-## Examples
+## More Examples
 
 ### How Are Glob Patterns Written in Each Mode?
 
@@ -167,5 +216,3 @@ syntax:
       echo 'Python'
     }
 
-
-## vim: sw=2
diff --git a/doc/table-object-doc.md b/doc/table-object-doc.md
index c85a94926..c4d0a9331 100644
--- a/doc/table-object-doc.md
+++ b/doc/table-object-doc.md
@@ -33,6 +33,12 @@ This is part of **maximal** YSH!
 <div id="toc">
 </div> 
 
+## Philosophy
+
+- Oils is Exterior-First
+- Tables, Objects, Documents - CSV, JSON, HTML
+  - Oils cleanup: TSV8, JSON8, HTM8
+
 ## Tables
 
 
@@ -60,12 +66,20 @@ This is part of **maximal** YSH!
   - JSON Schema
 - tr
   - Document
-  - HTML5, XML
+  - HTML5
   - DOM API like getElementById() <br/>
     CSS selectors <br/>
-    XPath?
   - JSX Templates
-  - XML Schema?
+  - ?
+- tr
+  - Document
+  - XML
+  - XPath?  XQuery?
+  - XSLT?
+  - three:
+    - DTD (document type definition, 1986)
+    - RelaxNG (2001)
+    - XML Schema aka XSD (2001)
 
 <!-- TODO: ul-table should allow caption at the top -->
 <caption>Existing</caption>
@@ -125,7 +139,85 @@ This is part of **maximal** YSH!
   - MySQL: XML extraction functions only
   - sqlite: none
 
+## Design Issues
+
+### Streaming
+
+- jq has a line-based streaming model, by taking advantage of the fact that
+  all JSON can be encoded without literal newlines
+  - HTML/XML don't have this property
+- Solution: Netstring based streaming?
+  - can do it for both JSON8 and HTM8 ?
+
+### Mutual Nesting
+
+- JSON must be UTF-8, so JSON strings can contain JSON
+  - ditto for JSON8, and J8 strings
+- TSV cells can't contain tabs or newlines
+  - so they can't contain TSV
+  - if you remove all the newlines, they can contain JSON
+- TSV8 cells use J8 strings, so they can contain JSON, TSV
+- HTM8
+  - you can escape everything, so you can put another HTM8 doc inside
+  - and you can put JSON/JSON8 or TSV/TSV8
+  - although are there whitespace rules?
+  - all nodes can be liek `<pre>` nodes, preserving whitespace, until
+    - you apply another function to it
+
+### HTML5 whitespace rules
+
+- inside text context:
+  - multiple whitespace chars collapsed into a single one
+  - newlines converted to spaces
+  - leading and trailing space is preserved
+- `<pre> <code> <textarea>`
+  - whitespace is preserved exactly as written
+    - I guess HTM8 could use another function for this?
+- quoted attributes
+  - whitespace is untouched
+
 ## Related
 
 - [stream-table-process.html](stream-table-process.html)
 - [ysh-doc-processing.html](ysh-doc-processing.html)
+
+## Notes
+
+### RelaxNG, XSD, DTD
+
+I didn't know there were these 3 schema types!
+
+- DTD is older, associated with SGML created in 1986
+- XML Schema and Relax NG created in 2001
+  - XML Schema use XML syntax, which is bad!
+
+
+### Algorithms?
+
+- I looked at `jq`
+- how do you do CSS selectors?
+- how do you do JSONPath?
+
+- XML Path
+  - holistic twig joins - bounded memory
+  - Hollandar Marx XPath Streaming
+
+
+### Naming
+
+- HTM8 doesn't use J8 strings
+  - but TSV8 does
+
+- Technically we could add j8 strings with
+  - j''
+  - and even templated strings with $"" ?
+- hm
+  - well then we would need $[ j'' ] and so forth
+
+Is
+
+- `<span x=j'foo'>` identical to `<span x="j'foo'">` in HTML5 ?
+  - it seems do
+  - ditto for `$""`
+- then we could disallow those pattern in double quotes?
+  - they would have to be quoted like &sq; or something
diff --git a/doctools/oils_doc.py b/doctools/oils_doc.py
index 788e039ad..88217624a 100755
--- a/doctools/oils_doc.py
+++ b/doctools/oils_doc.py
@@ -22,6 +22,11 @@
 from doctools.util import log
 from lazylex import html
 
+try:
+    import pygments
+except ImportError:
+    pygments = None
+
 
 class _Abbrev(object):
 
@@ -300,22 +305,13 @@ def __init__(self, s, start_pos, end_pos, lang):
         self.lang = lang
 
     def PrintHighlighted(self, out):
-        try:
-            from pygments import lexers
-            from pygments import formatters
-            from pygments import highlight
-        except ImportError:
-            log("Warning: Couldn't import pygments, so skipping syntax highlighting"
-                )
-            return
-
         # unescape before passing to pygments, which will escape
         code = html.ToText(self.s, self.start_pos, self.end_pos)
 
-        lexer = lexers.get_lexer_by_name(self.lang)
-        formatter = formatters.HtmlFormatter()
+        lexer = pygments.lexers.get_lexer_by_name(self.lang)
+        formatter = pyments.formatters.HtmlFormatter()
 
-        highlighted = highlight(code, lexer, formatter)
+        highlighted = pygments.highlight(code, lexer, formatter)
         out.Print(highlighted)
 
 
@@ -492,6 +488,11 @@ def HighlightCode(s, default_highlighter, debug_out=None):
                             out.SkipTo(slash_code_left)
 
                         else:  # language-*: Use Pygments
+                            if pygments is None:
+                                log("Warning: Couldn't import pygments, so skipping syntax highlighting"
+                                    )
+                                continue
+
                             # We REMOVE the original <pre><code> because
                             # Pygments gives you a <pre> already
 
@@ -503,8 +504,8 @@ def HighlightCode(s, default_highlighter, debug_out=None):
                                 break
                             tag_lexer.Reset(slash_code_right, end_pos)
                             assert tok_id == html.EndTag, tok_id
-                            assert tag_lexer.TagName(
-                            ) == 'pre', tag_lexer.TagName()
+                            assert (tag_lexer.TagName() == 'pre'
+                                    ), tag_lexer.TagName()
                             slash_pre_right = end_pos
 
                             out.PrintUntil(pre_start_pos)