Aucbvax.2320
fa.works
utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!works
Thu Jul 16 19:30:45 1981
Re: Making paper go away
>From Zellich@OFFICE-3 Thu Jul 16 19:27:50 1981
In response to the message sent 14 July 1981 1211-EDT (Tuesday)
from Joe.Newcomer@CMU-10A
Well, there is already a way to scan quickly through files:
it's called structured (or hierarchical, or whatever) files
a la Engelbart's NLS (now called Augment) and (Ted Nelson's ?)
Hypertext.
You can look at one or more levels, and independently one or
more lines of those levels, and open up or close up the part
on your screen to see more or less. It makes it very fast
to see what is in a document you've never seen before, or
to find something specific in an old document when you don't
know it's exact location. You may even be able to "address"
desired text by context. Combined with a windowing capability,
a pointing mouse, and auxiliary 5-key keyset, this gives an
extremely powerful tool - now if only it came packaged in a
briefcase-sized personal DEC-10...
Structured files are great, but do have an interface problem
because the rest of the world uses "flat" files - it's not
always easy to translate between the two - especially if there
is highly-formatted text like columnated tables, or "drawings"
(dot-and-dash boxes, etc.). Of course, the interface with the
rest of the world is a problem when using *any* advanced system
- I might have a little trouble putting a Star icon in a netmail
message, too.
-Rich
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