[Gzz-commits] gzz/doc/pegboard/styled_text--benja peg.rst

[Benja Fallenstein]

CVSROOT:        /cvsroot/gzz
Module name:    gzz
Changes by:     Benja Fallenstein <address@hidden>      02/10/31 10:50:04

Modified files:
        doc/pegboard/styled_text--benja: peg.rst 

Log message:
        Shorten styled_text--benja a bit

CVSWeb URLs:
http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/gzz/gzz/doc/pegboard/styled_text--benja/peg.rst.diff?tr1=1.2&tr2=1.3&r1=text&r2=text

Patches:
Index: gzz/doc/pegboard/styled_text--benja/peg.rst
diff -u gzz/doc/pegboard/styled_text--benja/peg.rst:1.2 
gzz/doc/pegboard/styled_text--benja/peg.rst:1.3
--- gzz/doc/pegboard/styled_text--benja/peg.rst:1.2     Wed Oct 30 21:40:08 2002
+++ gzz/doc/pegboard/styled_text--benja/peg.rst Thu Oct 31 10:50:03 2002
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@
 =====================================================
 
 :Author:       Benja Fallenstein
-:Date:         $Date: 2002/10/31 02:40:08 $
-:Revision:     $Revision: 1.2 $
+:Date:         $Date: 2002/10/31 15:50:03 $
+:Revision:     $Revision: 1.3 $
 :Status:       Current
 :Date-Created: 2002-10-30
 
@@ -46,8 +46,7 @@
 to emphasize some text, you'd make a link to it saying,
 "Emphasize this!"
 
-This is indeed an interesting idea (I suppose Tuomas has it
-from Ted's Literary Machines book). The two main runners for
+This is indeed an interesting idea. The two main runners for
 how to implement styled text seem to be:
 
 - the Xu one: using external links;
@@ -56,23 +55,14 @@
 The Xu way of doing this would, for example, allow us to say
 "This should be emphasized!" in one transclusion, and have
 the emphasis appear in another transclusion as well.
-
-However, there are two major problems with this exciting idea.
-The first I discovered was: What if you have the same characters
-in two different contexts? This can happen even in the same
-document: the same text can appear in a header and somewhere
-in the body, possibly in a reference to the header
-or something. It would be impossible to decide whether the
-characters should be linked as "header" or not. Also, if we
-quote some text from another document, it is common practice
-to add an own emphasis-- we wouldn't want our own emphasis
-to appear in the original document, nor would we necessarily
-want it to appear in *our* document when we give the original
-quote a second time. We might want to give the quote first,
-then analyze it, emphasizing different parts of it each time.
-
-The second major problem is versioning. Formatting properties
-must be versioned; it must be easy, for example, to emphasize
+If I have transcluded a sentence in three places, and I decide
+that it flows better when one word is emphasised, it would
+be cool if emphasizing it in one copy would automatically
+emphasize it in the other copies.
+
+However, this is not how Xu handles this, for a simple reason:
+Formatting properties must be versioned. 
+It must be easy,  for example, to emphasize
 a piece of a document, then go back to the old, non-emphasized
 version, then view the two side-by-side; it would be absolutely
 unexpected to have the emphasis appear in the older version,
@@ -81,42 +71,45 @@
 in two different cells on the screen, for example in Ted's
 real cut-and-paste system.
 
-If we store formatting properties as xu links, in order for
-the formatting to work as expected in these cases, we'd need
-to specify *which* format links should apply to each instance
-of a piece of text. We'd have to list, "this link applies,
-and this one, and this." That way, we could avoid that
-applying a format to one version automatically re-formats
-another version which was not intended to be re-formatted.
-
-(I suppose the Xu project did this by simply only respecting
-formatting links stored in the same document; this works
-because in Xu, links are in a document context. Updated
-versions of a document would have updated formatting links.
-This, too, has the effects explained in the next paragraph.)
-
-However, this means the whole concept loses the property
-I really like about it: I can *not* apply emphasis in one copy
-and automatically have it appear in another copy, where
-I'd need it, too. It doesn't work because the computer cannot
-decide which copies the format should be applied to,
-and which not.
-
-Now, this is a revealing similarity to the *order* of characters--
-the vstream. In many cases, when I have two copies of the same
-text, and I change something in one copy-- insert a character,
-swap two words-- I would like this change to appear in the other
-copy, too. However, in other cases-- especially when comparing
-different versions/possibilities, I do *not* want the other
-version to change. (In zzstructure, if I do want both versions
-to change, I represent the transclusion using a clone, not the
-xanalogical mechanism.) This is exactly the same as with the
+The intent in Xanadu was to handle this by only interpreting
+the links in the same document: In Xanadu, a document would
+contain some text and a set of links, and only the formatting
+links in the same document would be applied to the text.
+This solves the problem above, but it also makes the excitement
+go away for me: different transclusions of a sentence would
+be in different documents, so formatting one of them would not
+automatically format the others.
+
+Now, this is a revealing similarity to the *order* of characters-- 
+the vstream. If I have the same sentence in different contexts,
+sometimes I would like changes (inserting a character, swapping
+two words) to appear in all instances, but in other cases I don't.
+This is exactly the same as with the
 formatting properties: the computer can't decide the problem,
 so even though it might be convenient if it could do it right,
 we don't make an attempt that could only do it wrongly.
+(In zzstructure, we can use clones if we want all transclusions
+to change when one changes.)
+
+Additionally, it is possible that we want to have the 
+same characters twice in the same document (in Gzz: cell), with
+different formatting properties. For example, we might give
+a quote from another document verbatim, then quote it again
+several times while analyzing it in-depth,
+emphasizing different parts of it each time.
+In the Xu model, this simply doesn't work, since we cannot
+specify in the link which transclusion of the quote should
+be formatted how-- if we emphasize a word in one of the
+transclusions, it'll be formatted in all others as well.
+
+I think this is a good argument for choosing the "boring" way,
+above: Implementing formatting in the enfilade. 
+
+
+Proposal
+========
 
-I think this is a good argument for taking the "boring" way,
-above: Implementing formatting in the enfilade. Conceptually,
+Conceptually,
 an enfilade object is simply a list of spans (or, if you prefer,
 characters); a "formatted enfilade object" will conceptually
 be a list of spans each of which has zero or more "styles"