PRIDE(ID:6611/pri001)

List and file processing language for Xanadu  

for Personalized Retrieval, Indexing, and Documentation Evolutionary (System)

Language system for Xanadu
References:
  • Nelson, T. H. "A File Structure for The Complex, The Changing and the Indeterminate" view details Abstract: THE KINDS OF FILE structures required if we are to use the computer for personal files and as an adjunct to creativity are wholly different in character from those customary in business and scientific data processing. They need to provide the capacity for intricate and idiosyncratic arrangements, total modifiability, undecided alternatives, and thorough internal documentation. I want to explain how some ideas developed and what they are. The original problem was to specify a computer system for personal information retrieval and documentation, able to do some rather complicated things in clear and simple ways. In this paper I will explain the original problem. Then I will explain why the problem is not simple, and why the solution (a file structure) must yet be very simple. The file structure suggested here is the Evolutionary List File, to be built of zippered lists. A number of uses will be suggested for such a file, to show the breadth of its potential usefulness. Finally, I want to explain the philosophical implications of this approach for information retrieval and data structure in a changing world. DOI Extract: PRIDE
    THE KINDS OF FILE structures required if we are to use the computer for personal
    files and as an adjunct to creativity are wholly different in character from those
    customary in business and scientific data processing. They need to provide the
    capacity for intricate and idiosyncratic arrangements, total modifiability, undecided
    alternatives, and thorough internal documentation.
    The original idea was to make a file for writers and scientists, much like
    the personal side of Bush's Memex, that would do the things such people need with
    the richness they would want. But there are so many possible specific functions
    that the mind reels. These uses and considerations become so complex that the
    only answer is a simple and generalized building-block structure, user-oriented and
    wholly general-purpose.
    The resulting file structure is explained and examples of its use are given.
    It bears generic similarities to list-processing systems but is slower and bigger.
    It employs zippered lists plus certain facilities for modification and spin-off of
    variations. This is technically accomplished by index manipulation and text patching,
    but to the user it acts like a multifarious, polymorphic, many-dimensional,
    infinite blackboard.
    The ramifications of this approach extend well beyond its original concerns,
    into such places as information retrieval and library science, motion pictures and
    the programming craft; for it is almost everywhere necessary to deal with deep
    structural changes in the arrangements of ideas and things.
    I want to explain how some ideas developed and what they are. The original
    problem was to specify a computer system for personal information retrieval and
    documentation, able to do some rather complicated things in clear and simple ways.
    The investigation gathered generality, however, and has eventuated in a number of
    ideas. These are an information structure, a file structure, and a file language,
    each progressively more complicated. The information structure I call zippered
    lists; the file structure is the ELF, or ]Evolutionary Lis't File; and the file language
    (proposed) is called PRIDE.
    In this paper I will explain the original problem. Then I will explain why
    the problem is not simple, and why the solution (a file structure) must yet be
    very simple. The file structure suggested here is the Evolutionary List File, to
    be built of zippered lists. A number of uses will be suggested for such a file, to
    show the breadth of its potential usefulness. Finally, I want to explain the
    philosophical implications of this approach for information retrieval and data
    structure in a changing world. External link: PRIDE
          in [ACM] Proceedings of the 1965 20th National Conference 1965 , Cleveland, Ohio, United States view details
  • Theodor Holm Nelson, The heart of connection: hypermedia unified by transclusion, Communications of the ACM, v.38 n.8, p.31-33, Aug. 1995 view details
          in [ACM] CACM 38(08) (Aug 1995) view details