Re: [zzdev] Re: [zzdev] "Virtual" (was: Re: [zzdev] Some thoughts on virtualstructures)

[Brent Turcotte <brentt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Hi Brent,
>
>sorry about not getting back to you earlier!

At least the delay wasn't as long as the delay on this message.
Yep, I am quite late with this one.

>Any news about the file format -> hypergrid mappings?

I have noticed Ted's definition of virtual cells, cells which
are temporary until links are made then they become persistant.

Here is an overview of possible dimensions:

-ObjectAppearance
Appearance would be an edge list of options that would change the
appearance of an object on the screen or printer.  Included would
be information on fonts, character spacing etc.  An object is this
sense could be anything that is displayed be it a character, paragraph,
page, or graphic image.  Attributes for the appearance dimension would
come from programs like Office and its clones, from HTML and so on.  
A complex area.

-NumberAppearence
Appearance but applied to numbers instead.  Includes stuff like 
scientific notation, currency, number of significant decimal places and 
more.

-LetterSpans
These are letter spans which include words, sentences, paragraphs, sections,
page, etc.

-ExtraNotes
ExtraNotes include things like footnotes, annotations, endnotes, comments, 
post-it-notes :-), bibliography, table of contents, indexes etc.  ExtraNotes 
refer to all bunches of text not included in a main body of text, but are 
linked to it.

-TableX, TableY, TableZ, Table4, Table5, etc
Tables include spreadsheets, tables in word processors, tables in HTML and 
other places.  TableZ in Excel, could represent the different worksheets
within 
a workbook.  Table4, and up are supplemental dimensions are higher order
tables
which are probably quite rare in the computer world.  A user might map the 
higher order dimensions to various workbooks and directory structures.

-FileAttributes
An edge list which describes all the attributes of a file such as its name, 
when it was created, its length, etc.  

Databases would be handled differently, which each field representing its own 
unique dimension.  Perhaps common fields could be named (such as fields 
related to ID3v2 tags for example)

-FieldAppearence
Restrictions on fields, like its size, data type, etc.  For databases. 

-Style
A style is a selection of attributes with specified values for dimensions 
such as Appearance, FieldAttributes, NumberAppearence.

-Attributes
A dimension which gives documentation or links to documentation on an
attribute
so that people know what it is.

Dictionaries
-SameLetter
-DifferentLetter
-LetterPosition
-Dictionary
-LetterNext
-NextWord
-BinaryTreeLeft
-BinaryTreeRight
An grossly inefficient (likely) to represent a dictionary.  But it would
allow quick searches of a dictionary of words to find say all words
that had c as its third letter and d as its sixth letter (??c??d)

-Date
A number that represents time and date.

--Brent Turcotte