I couldn't find anything about NODAL from a google search, so where can
I get more info ?
Jack Park wrote:
> Interesting post, Lee. Why do you think you need anyone's permission
> to
> offer up a conjecture?
>
> I have a few comments interspersed below.
> Jack
> At 04:05 PM 5/30/2001 -0700, you wrote:
> >In message <4.2.2.20010523101903.00b8f280@thinkalong.com>, Jack Park
> writes:
> > > [some deleted]
> ><snippage>
> > >DocBook would nolonger be comprised of imbedded tags. Rather, it
> would be
> > >an "above the document" series of URIs into a rich information
> > >space. Parsable as a DocBook document, but now, given the ability
> to let
> > >the URIs (tumblers?) pass through a grove engine, one now has the
> > >capability of universal multimedia document generation, complete
> with
> > >reusable components.
> >
> >I'm with you entirely on this one. Another way of phrasing it would
> >be to suggest that we have a soup of completely reusable components
> >(nodes) which are organized using a small number of very simple
> >primitives into an arbitrarily interconnected graph of nodes.
> >Edges in the graph may be references to either local or remote
> >objects, as long as every potential object has an easily derived
> >external address (a URI). Information objects are then delivered
> >outside the system by serializing views (Doug's term, the same as
> >Ted's virtual file) using a variety of serialization algorithms each
> >of which corresponds to some external document format (e.g. HTML, MS
> >Word, GIF and JPEG images, ...). These documents only actually exist
>
> >as serializations produced from various views of the interconnected
> >node databases. Sounds like NODAL!
>
> Well, it *is* NODAL!
>
> > >Of course, one needs a mechanism to view (and edit) such an
> enormous,
> > >heterogeneous information space. Ted gave a great demonstration of
> his
> > >ZigZag technology that allows individual information-bearing nodes
> to be
> > >wired together, just as beads on a string, and wired into as many
> > >dimensions of information one wishes. One node, many views. An
> open
> > >source version of ZigZag is available at
> http://gzigzag.sourceforge.net. I
> > >am persuaded to suspect that an application of the ZigZag idea
> merits
> > >consideration in just about any knowledge project in which one
> might be
> > >involved, including Doug Engelbart's own Open Hyperdocument System
> > >(http://www.bootstrap.org).
> >
> >I wasn't particularly impressed with ZigZag, since it didn't seem to
> >give me anything that I couldn't get with generic (and
> >well-understood!) graph structures and algorithms. Ted's search for
> >"revolutionary" data structures seems to be too much of a barrier for
>
> >most programmers, let alone the users of his systems.
>
> It's just the image I conjure up. You have this enormous (indexed)
> space
> of objects, some of which can include tags (e.g. <birthday
> name="joey">...</birthday>. In general, you stitch them together into
>
> graph structures as needed -- Doug's view engine. ZigZag just happens
> to
> be one engine that, while the vocabulary used to discuss it is hard to
>
> embrace, does something like what I am describing. I am not sure that
> one
> needs ZigZag, but one needs, in theory, the ability to roam about in
> an
> indexed space, grab objects, and stitch them up into a structure for
> presentation as needed. One also needs the ability to create nodes
> within
> the structure that, themselves, can be returned to the object pool.
> ZigZag
> offers an engine that allows stitching, viewing, creating, and
> editing.
>
> ><snip>
> >I'm not entirely convinced that all structure wants to be "above the
> >information" . I'd suggest that useful information has inherent
> >structure. The real issue is the flexibility of the structural
> >building blocks and the ability to reference and reuse this
> structured
> >information with a variety of higher-level structures. In order to
> >reuse a birthday, I want to maintain the fact that it is So-and-so's
> >birthday, no matter what the context that nugget is being used in.
>
> See my comment above.
>
> >So, with your permission, I'd say that the real failure of current
> >systems is that the only level of reusable structure "above the
> >information" is the document. That is just way too coarse.
>
> Agreed.
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >----
> >Lee Iverson SRI International
> >leei@ai.sri.com 333 Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park CA
> 94025
> >http://www.ai.sri.com/~leei/ (650) 859-3307
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jun 06 2001 - 10:03:42 PDT