zz: Sync through Slices (Was: ...Palm Pilot Developers around?

[Ted Nelson <ted@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Palm Piloters--

I think now is not the time for a port, because both
 the Palm Pilot and ZZ are going to be evolving significantly.

The Official Sync Method for ZZ cells is going to be the
 Slice.  A slice is a set of cells (not nec connected amongst
 themselves, but expected oft to be) which can be brought in
 connected to your other stuff.  Or, more precisely, an
 Outer Slice lives on disk and may be brought in to connect
 to your main stuff (the Home Slice).

There is an expected implementation hierarchy for slices, not yet
 written up here.  (The usual time problem.)  The design for
 fulll-capability interpenetrating slices is in the infamous memo
 of July 98.

Best, Ted



At 11:02 AM 4/7/99 -0400, you wrote:
>>I think there were some - are they still here?
>
>Yep, I'm still here, at least.
>
>>if so - someone had decided that it was Too Hard to re-create ZigZag on
>>a Palm Pilot.
>>
>>Fair enough.
>
>Not really Too Hard, but just a situation with Different Design Needs.
>A keyboard-based control system, for instance, is out of the question,
>as, most likely, is the full interactive scriptability provided by
>Perl.  But the core of the concept -- a complex N-dimensional database
>environment -- is doable with a little care, IMO.  And in fact it may
>work even better than on the desktop, since Pilot users are already
>used to dealing with small simple chunks of data rather than big
>monolithic applications and files.
>
>>How about some system that will let you enter ZigZag cells into a pilot
>>- and then later ingegrate or synchronize them with the ZigZag structure
>>running on your PC?
>>
>>Your pilot could store a simple flat file database.  This could be kept
>>in the ZigZag structure in it's own dimension.  a row of cells would
>>start at home and run off poswards into the distance.  Using the power
>>of ZigZag these could be linked to other cells in your structure in any
>>way you liked, and could appear in ordinary dimensions with other
>>ordinary cells.  Both the Pilot client and sych routine could be kept
>>fairly simple.
>>
>>I'd really like the ability to makes notes on a pilot and then later
>>integrate them easily into a ZZ structure.  I tend to lose bits of
>>paper.
>>
>>ponder ponder.
>
>Well worth pondering, indeed...  In fact, such a thing could be done
>entirely on the server side: just designate one category of memos as
>"ZigZag cells" and extract that info from the backup files.
>
>The only slightly complicated element I can foresee is the ability to
>match up cells to memos in future syncs.  The easiest thing to do,
>which is very easy in ZZ, is to attach another dimension to the line
>of cells in which you store the unique ID of each record that the
>Pilot keeps track of for its own syncing.
>
>- Edward Keyes
>  eakeyes@xxxxxxx
>
>
>
>
____________________________________________________
Theodor Holm Nelson, Project Professor,
 Keio University SFC Campus, Fujisawa, Japan
 Home Fax from USA: 011-81-466-46-7368  (If in Japan, 0466-46-7368)
http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ted/  (Professorial page)
_____________________________________________________
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