zz: Re: ZigZagology

[Ted Nelson <ted@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Yo--

Mike Mosher Wreplied to my having said:
>>ZigZag cannot have, of itself, any look and feel-- though a
>> particular implementation can.  It is an abstract structure
>> with spatial hooks for interface and connection.  So some
>> pretty implementation might be nice, but it wouldn't be
>> the *real* ZigZag, any more than some piece of calligraphy
>> would be the *real* number 2.
>
>Thinking about your calligraphed 2 example, it may prove just the opposite
>of what you intend it to.  EVERY 2 has a look and feel, just as every 2 is
>designed.  And because it's a sign, an abstraction, every representation of
>2 is the real 2.

Two thoughts to separate here.  Yes, each representation
 is of the real 2; but the connotations and feel of the different
 representations MIGHT confuse SOME beholders away from
 understanding the Twoness of them all.  Arithmetic texts do
 not tend to decorate their numerals except maybe on the cover.

>You've expressed elsewhere how you think the Mac interface had all its bad
>parts cast in stone for too many years, so I understand you don't want
>early visuals associated with ZigZag permanently.  The problem is, that's
>already happening--journalist Ditlea describing what he saw when you showed
>him, giving everybody a mental picture.  Maybe the issue is the rapid
>creation of enough implementations so what's memorable is the range, not
>any individual one.

I'll go along with that.  Best, T

____________________________________________________
Theodor Holm Nelson, Visiting Professor of Environmental Information
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Quotation of the day, 98.12.02:
Mike McNally, president of the Air Traffic Controllers Union, yesterday
assured the press that air traffic controllers can take over from computers
in case Y2K bugs hit the system.  
     "I'm not trying to indicate that when our computers shut down that
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screaming to try to get a handle on it," he said.  (cnn.com, dateline
98.12.01)