zz,xu,zzmail: Re: Next Versions and your To Do List

[Ted Nelson <ted@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi--

Recent discussions with Andrew make it clear
 that we're going to have to do a lot of coordinating.

It's extremely exciting to see things come together:
 in principle we're going to be able to combine
 ZigZag and Xanadu, Osmic and zzmail, Web server
 and Browser Interface.  All these features/extensions
 are possible and desirable and exciting.  But speaking
 as someone who's had too many projects going for
 far too long, I want to distill this all downward to
 the simplest and clearest development plan.

I see it as imperative to plan very closely with you
 (Andrew and Bek) what is to go in each version.
 Loose initiatives and sloppy planning could be very
 dangerous because our resources are so scarce.

I want to go on with only **one**, count it,
 development thread: only one next version
 at any time.

I would like the next version, 0.50, to be a cleanup
 with as little new stuff as possible.  I'll tell you what
 I see as the cleanup.

Then we go to serious new initiatives in two ways:

1)  A very long list of small additions which
 have to be selected carefully;

2)  The major changes and initiatives, likewise.

These lists will come to you Real Soon Now.

Best, Ted


At 03:20 PM 5/26/98 +1000, you wrote:
>
>I've got to a point where I'm no longer quite sure what should be done
>next with ZigZag.  I need both Andrew and Ted to take a look at this
>list and tell me which they'd like next ... then I'll add them up and
>divide by two and make up my own mind.  Sound OK?
>
>PS Andrew:  I need to get paid in fairly  short order as I bought the
>new computer screen with money I don't really have ...
>
>
>To Do list
>----------
>
>NB:  This is currently in alphabetical order - NOT in order of
>importance or urgency.
>
>* Add dimension which links all cells?  Or change to btree implementation?
>* Check for people deleting any of the essential dimensions
>* Check for people deleting the cursor (This will need to be modified if
we allow more cursors?)
>* Database should be  flushed after every n operations and before invoking
an external program
>* Execute-cell to use #! notation?  (Xanni?  Ted's gonna hate this, isn't
he?) (NB:  This won't work for windoze unless we parse it ourselves, I
suspect?)
>* Fix perl Curses window resize bug
>* Implement "E view"
>* Implement "floating head cells" (negmost cell remains at edge of window)
>* Implement HTTP server interface which provides HTML representation
>* Implement assemble (join together cells in a rank) and split cell into rank
>* Implement colour for dimensions
>* Implement create & delete cursor (window)
>* Implement export and import with cell connections
>* Implement export marked cells to Table or Outline format (probably HTML)
>* Implement general multiple key sequences
>* Implement general undo
>* Implement mark
>* Implement multiple slices
>* Implement rename and delete dimension (all links)
>* Implement separate dimension lists (different sequences) for each window
>* Implement separate dump-to-ascii and undump-from-ascii programs so the
database can be preserved accross DB-breaking upgrades
>* Implement shear and chug
>* Implement undelete (save links when deleting, dispose after other changes)
>* Implement variable sized cell presentation
>* MIME Type application/x-zigzag
>* Move keymap into cells
>* Move program code into cells (initialisation progcells with sub defs)
>* Port to Perl32 (using Win32::Console module?)
>* Put errors from cell execution in another cell linked along Error dim
>* Redesign to   lessen the number of "magic"/hardcoded links and cell numbers
>* Status bar should be optional
>* There are timing problems with the status bar messages (Suggestion:
Deal with this like Lynx, sleep for n seconds after an error, then clear
the status bar again?)
>* Write database checking and repair utility
>* ^L and ^R should refresh screen
>
>* This stuff will be done when the whole thing is re-written in
>object-oriented style becuase it's easy to do together with that and
>hard to do without it.
>   o Implement cell creation date as property (later add modified and
visited?)
>   o Implement cell type as property
>   o Implement naming cells (aliasing)
>   o Implement other media types besides text
>
>
>-- 
>: Gossamer - gossamer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx - http://www.tertius.net.au/~gossamer/
>: Remember, a standing ovation starts with just one person admiring you
>: enough to get up off their butt and applaud you.  -- Andrew Pearce
>
>
________________________________________________________
Theodor Holm Nelson, Visiting Professor of Environmental Information
 Keio University, Shonan Fujisawa Campus, Fujisawa, Japan
http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ted/    PERMANENT E-MAIL: ted@xxxxxxxxxx
 Home Fax: 0466-46-7368  From USA: 011-81-466-46-7368
_________________________________________________________
Project Xanadu (Permanent)
 3020 Bridgeway #295, Sausalito CA 94965
 Tel. 415/ 331-4422, fax 415/ 332-0136
http://www.xanadu.net
_________________________________________________________
Quotation of the day:
"I have recently decided, to my dismay, that perhaps this IS the best of
all possible worlds-- after an agonizing reconsideration of the meanings
and scopes of 'possibility'."  Ted Nelson, 17 June 1998.