The invention discloses methods and apparatus based on tabular concepts which greatly simplify the configuration, maintenance and run-time operations of a broad range of electronic equipment control systems, including, but not limited to: (a) industrial controls, (b) supervisory control and data acquisition, such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and (c) home automation, including systems or stand-alone equipment, such as video recording devices. The tabular concepts of the invention are applied in three primary stages, namely (i) data input or configuration, including automated data population, (ii) generic operating rule application to tables of rules data variables, and (iii) English (or other) language translations of the current rule sets, for ease of verification. By each of these methods alone and through combination of all of these methods, the current invention makes the configuration and operation of automated equipment easily accessible to persons who do not have technical skills in either process control, automation, or software programming. Development of software for automatic control of equipment is also greatly simplified by these inventions.