Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Glossaries on Nirvana
Author: Dave Winer Posted: 10/17/1998; 7:46:31 AM Topic: Suggestion: Explore the Calendar Msg #: 246 (In response to 244) Prev/Next: 245 / 247
One of the remaining puzzles for how Nirvana will work is how the various websites and databases are linked together into a cohesive web presence that is truly easy for us to add to, and easy for people to find things on.I want the search engine to play the central role in this. I don't believe long pages of links to lots of stuff work. I've spent a month using the Frontier 5 site intensely to learn about the product. I *always* use the search engine. I find what I want. I want to rely more and more on the search engine, as I think everyone else does.
So, enter glossaries. What will the global glossary look like for this server? When I want to reference another page, what will I put in "double quotes"? Which pages will broadcast their presence globally by adding a link to themselves in the global glossary? Should any pages do this?
An example, every verb in UserTalk has a web presence that's definitive. There may be other pages that explain stuff about a verb, but the home page for the verb is its DocServer page. So it would be reasonable to add a link to file.exists in user.html.glossary. There's no problem with this case.
Now, here's a case that illustrates the big problem with using the glossary for Nirvana as it is now. Pretend it's January 1998, and I'm writing about a new feature that's coming in Frontier, XML-RPC, but it isn't called that, it's called "HTTP-XML-RPC-MAC-WINDOWS".
It's very early in the process. Haven't figured it out yet. I point to the at-the-time definitive piece from some other page. OK, a few months pass, the feature gets fleshed out, debugged, finalized and specified. Now that it's real, it's got a definitive page. But if someone stumbles across the old piece, they never find the new definitive piece.
The idea now has a home, but the website hasn't changed to reflect that. The reader gets the impression that the idea died, never went anywhere, when in fact, it blossomed and took root and was a great success.
So, what to do? Bonk! Rely on the search engine, which stays current. I'd put an item in the global glossary called "HTTP-XML-RPC-MAC-WINDOWS", and its value would be something like this:
And of course the search engine would show a list of articles about XML-RPC, with the main page:
http://www.scripting.com/frontier5/xml/code/rpc.html
At the top of the list.
Still some glitches to work out in this idea, but I like it, and wanted to share it.
Dave
There are responses to this message:
- Re: Glossaries on Nirvana, Jacob Savin, 10/17/1998; 12:10:28 PM
- Re: Glossaries on Nirvana, Tommy Sundström, 10/18/1998; 1:54:44 AM
- DocServer for the Future, Dave Winer, 10/19/1998; 7:01:15 AM
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