Draft Treaty On Links

[Marc Stiegler <marcs>]

Dean and I have talked again about links. This time we strongly 
filtered the discussion through the following criterion: for 
Beta let us implement the minimum amount of mechanism that we 
have reasonable hope will be good enough to be wonderful for 
a first product, and then add more stuff if that minimum amount 
isn't enough.

Here is my understanding of our current agreement:

1) If the link is created as a part of new document creation 
(i.e., "Attach New Note"), the link from the current highlighted 
area in the active document to the new note is embedded in the 
note.

2) If the link is created between existing documents, the link 
is not embedded.

3) We will consult markm about whether the links should be vcopied 
when a referenced document in an inclusion list gets contained.

4) When the user has a link available for editing, if the link 
is first class he sees the BY and FOR permission groups; if the 
link is embedded, he sees a reference to the document whose permissions 
it follows.

Things for us to watch for in Beta testing are:

1) User confusion because the links are not version tracking 
with changing documents.

2) User annoyance because multiple copies of the "same" link 
are appearing in his link pane (roger is pretty sure this is 
easily fixed, so that only one copy of the link appears in the 
list; I hope so).

3) User annoyance because link sensors ring when people vcopy 
documents.

Dean, what alterations do you wish to ink onto this treaty?

--marcs