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:virt,tx,gzz: What to do in undefined conditions :)
- To: zzdev@xxxxxxxxxx
- Subject: :virt,tx,gzz: What to do in undefined conditions :)
- From: Ted Nelson <ted@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 19:05:15 +0900
- Cc: ted@xxxxxxxxxx, eharter@xxxxxxxxx
Tuomas,
You point out excellently the problem of
> - undefined operations. What should the system do when rotating
> to an empty cell as a dimension, for example
Let me throw out some general rules to consider--
1. Don't crash.
2. Consider the main thing that the particular functions do.
3. Consider also what it's being extended to.
4. Think of what the optimistic user might expect
from the Undefined operation, possibly from some strange
thing he's done.
5. Try to make this sensible.
6. Try to reconcile this with the overall conceptual structure.
In the case of the empty cell on the dimension list,
my thoughts might be
(2) The dimension list lets you see different views.
(3) It's being extended to such things as parameters, numbers,
maybe colors ... simply by putting in these new abbreviations--
n.3, whatever.
The optimistic user might say, "hey, I can put anything I want
in a cell, and that's what will appear on the view diagram!".
So why not? Show blank on the view diagram, have a dimension
with the null name?
I have no doctrinal position on this; if you want to forbid
dimensions, for instance, without "c." where c is one (or more)
characters, that's fine with me.
Rule 1 is the most important !-)
Best, T
_________________________________________
Theodor Holm Nelson
Project Professor, Keio University SFC Campus, Fujisawa, Japan
Visiting Professor, University of Southampton, England
? e-mail: ted@xxxxxxxxxx ? world-wide fax 1/415/332-0136
? http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ted/ ? http://www.xanadu.net
? Coordinates in USA Tel. 415/ 331-4422
Project Xanadu, 3020 Bridgeway #295, Sausalito CA 94965
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