Complex information processing

(pre)determined by its design. Computer systems have, for better or worse, strong influence on what we consider as practical, what we think we need and even what we consider as possible. (Programming languages have a similar effect). One of the key points of Ted Nelson's research is that much of the writing process is re-arranging, or recombining, individual pieces (text, images, ...) into a bigger whole. In some sense, hypertext provides support for fine-grained modularized writing. It provides mechanisms and structures for combination and recombination. But this requires a "common" hypertext structure that can be easily and conveniently viewed, manipulated and "shared" between applications. Because this form of editing is so fundamental, it should be part of an operating system and an easily accessible "affordance". The Web is not designed for fine-grained editing and rearranging/recombining content, and has started as a compromise to get work done at CERN. For example, following a link is very easy and almost instantaneous, but creating a link is a whole different story, let alone making a collection of related web pages tied to specific inquiries, or, even make a shorter version of a page with some details left out or augmented. Hypertext goes far deeper than this. Although a bit dated, I still recommend reading Ted Nelson's seminal ACM publication in which he touches many issues concerning writing, how we can manage different versions and combinations of a text body (or a series of documents), what the problems are and how they can be technically addressed. [1] "Complex information processing: a file structure for the complex, the changing and the indeterminate" https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/800197.806036

where computers have outgrown the metaphor of file, folder, and the printed page. I do have one criticism of the tools mentioned in the article: proprietary, closed formats. I think we should have learned enough by now to be wary of vendor lock-in, but I acknowledge that standardization efforts these days are likely to be years-long efforts in omphaloskepsis that squeeze out things like SAML, COBRA, and WS-anything. 1 https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview 2 https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-m... 3 https://doi.org/10.1145/800197.806036