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Documentation/misc/textcloud
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Documentation/misc/textcloud
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Some parts of an email exchange between Tjl and Ted, edited.
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(If these were real transclusions, you could jump from here to see the whole email
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exchange. Wouldn't that be just so nice...)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>Any progress on the textitems stuff? That is one priority since
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>that would represent an entirely different view of the ZZ structure
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>(vstreams), with interesting connectivity and applications. And I want
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>to use that to write my next pieces of ZZ documentation!
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OKAY. Here's what I think you asked me for.
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- keyboard commands to step around among flying items
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- how to glue them together
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- how to separate one item into two
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IN ADDITION, I think we want
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- how to make an item bigger or smaller
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- - - - - - - - - -
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Let's call this Item Cloud mode.
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I ASSUME the items can be borderless, just flying items of text on a
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shared background (so in principle two identical items could cover
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one another textually).
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NOTE THAT since my PC Java won't accept arrow keys, I have to
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have the letter alternatives esfc ijl, ESFC IJL> and sometimes dD kK.
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So when I say "arrow" I mean one of those.
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I AM HOPING that Java can receive keystrokes-up-and-down (raw).
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The following are keyboard suggestions to try. They should all be
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reconfigurable. The trouble, of course, is making them reconfigurable
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as sequences rather than as individual strokes.
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SELECTING A RIGHT-HAND ITEM:
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- Select by mouse
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OR (once one item is selected)
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- use ijl; arrow keys to select among them. I suggest that up and down
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should refer to items within epsilon vertically of the original item,
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and the same horizontally-- in other words, when using arrow keys,
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stay roughly near the one you're currently near. This we'll have to
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fiddle with parametrically. (It's also possible to select the next item
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within unseen vertical and horizontal channels-- an alt. approach.)
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OR
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- use the space bar to select next item IN ORDER OF CREATION.
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SELECTING A LEFT-HAND ITEM:
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- Select by mouse
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OR
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- use esfc keys to select among items.
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TO MOVE AN ITEM
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- ctrl-esfc or ctrl-ijl,
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TO CEMENT LEFT AND RIGHT ITEMS
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- capital S or E appends the left to the right
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- capital F or C prepends to left to the right
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- capital I or J appends the right to the left
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- capital L or < prepends the right to the left
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(Note that these are like the connection functions in Perl ZZ.)
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TO CUT
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I suggest space-!-space.
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Or \. (We'd go into a Special Mode if you actually want the character--
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NOT \\ for most people.
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Ctrl-enter would be great, if we could do it in raw mode.
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TO ENLARGE the right-hand-item a little (its typeface)
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+
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TO SHRINK the right-hand item a little
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-
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>> TO MOVE AN ITEM
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>> - ctrl-esfc or ctrl-ijl,
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>
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>And with mouse? For moving things around, the mouse is pretty good.
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Oh, of course. Sorry I forgot to mention.
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>Also, how to use the mouse to select - mouses have up to 3 buttons
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>and use of shift/ctrl at the same time.
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Right. Sorry.
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1. As you said, click and type. I presume you're typing on a big 2D
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space, and that Items aren't distinct till you end one?
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2. Ah, we haven't talked about how an item ends... I guess with same
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"sever" mechanism, no?)
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3. Move by left-mouse (to seize).
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The question is-- when should the mouse seize an item, when should
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the mouse start a new item?
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-- especially since it may not be exactly clear whether we are on top of
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an item, since there are no borders
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-- and as the area gets crowded, you want to be able to start an item in
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the middle of another item.
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^Õ ^Õ ^Õ ^Õ ^Õ ^Õ ^Õ ^Õ ^Õ ^Õ ^Õ
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But why not use the other mouse buttons for Billowing?
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That could combine it nicely.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>> SELECTING A LEFT-HAND ITEM:
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>> - Select by mouse
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>> OR
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>> - use esfc keys to select among items.
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>
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>So here you can't use the space? Or use ctrl-space or shift-space?
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>It would be nice to have the same ops for both sides.
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ZOWIE! SHIFT-SPACE! LOVE IT! That's perfect.
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Never thought of spacebar with a control key. Or at least
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not in the last five or ten years ...
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>But how do I append one item on the right to another item on the right.
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>Example: in the left cloud, I've typed a number of ideas I want to put
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>into a text, and in the right cloud, I'm working on the actual text.
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>So most operations would only touch the right-hand cloud.
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and also
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>> SELECTING A LEFT-HAND ITEM:
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>> - Select by mouse
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>> OR
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>> - use esfc keys to select among items.
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>
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>So here you can't use the space? Or use ctrl-space or shift-space?
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>It would be nice to have the same ops for both sides.
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Here we have great examples of WOOOOPS communication. I didn't
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notice that you mentioned left and right clouds. I thought we were dealing
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with only one cloud.
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So anyhow shift-space would be the most consistent.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>mouses have up to 3 buttons
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>and use of shift/ctrl at the same time.
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I would say that since 90% of the mice in the world have 2 buttons--
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- Mac with 1 button is what, 5%?
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- Linunix is even fewer, I think
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- W98 and W2000, with 3-button mice are rare
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W95 is still way the majority-- and they are an important market.
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Thus we DESIGN for 2-button mouse, leave the middle one explicitly
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to be programmable.
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In other words, the third button can only be for shortcuts
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and extra options.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>> TO CEMENT LEFT AND RIGHT ITEMS
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>> - capital S or E appends the left to the right
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>> - capital F or C prepends to left to the right
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>> - capital I or J appends the right to the left
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>> - capital L or < prepends the right to the left
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>> (Note that these are like the connection functions in Perl ZZ.)
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>
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>But how do I append one item on the right to another item on the right.
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>Example: in the left cloud, I've typed a number of ideas I want to put
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>into a text, and in the right cloud, I'm working on the actual text.
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>So most operations would only touch the right-hand cloud.
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Since when I wrote my part of the above I didn't realize you were
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talking about left and right CLOUDS, I assumed that each hand
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would be wandering in the one and only cloud. This is more
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exciting.
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(There's a poem in English that begins, "I wandered lonely as a cloud..."
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But not otherwise relevant.)
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Now how to choose?
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Heh heh ...
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Okay, Tuomas, it's time for MORE CURSORS!
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This is where we need the operations
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- cursor fork
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(Specifying which hand, assuming you're using two.)
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This creates a new cursor under the chosen hand, pointing at the
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same place, switches to it.
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- next-cursor-step
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(Specifying which hand, assuming you're using two.)
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This switches under the chosen hand to the next cursor in the cycle.
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- cursor kill
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(Specifying which hand, assuming you're using two.)
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This annihilates the cursor under the chosen hand,
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prob. goes *back* to previous cursor in the cycle.
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For some wild reason I think qaz (right) QAZ (left) would be
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the correct respective keys for these functions. They're in a row
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and out of the way. So--
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qQ - cursor fork
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aA - next-cursor-step
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zZ - cursor kill
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So let's say you have two cursors. Left is in the left cloud,
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right is in the right cloud. You want to start cementing items
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on the right.
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Do
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q- makes a new cursor (and new color) on the right;
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AA- switches the left hand to that cursor (since presumably
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the list is left-right-new-(loop back to left)
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aa- switches right hand back to right cursor
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Now you can move and cement items as I suggested above.
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When you want to go back to 2-cloud operation, you can
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either kill the third cursor or switch from it.
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ChrzT
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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u sez
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>> 1. As you said, click and type. I presume you're typing on a big 2D
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>> space, and that Items aren't distinct till you end one?
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>
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>Sorry, the last sentence again?
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Sorry.
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You're in mid-item. Item is on big virtual sheet of paper but began
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somewhere other than at top of paper. Item becomes distinct
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when you end it somehow, presumably beginning another item.
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>> 2. Ah, we haven't talked about how an item ends... I guess with same
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>> "sever" mechanism, no?)
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>
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>Escape?
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Could do. In the ASCII charworld, backslash also good.
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Anyway, if it's one character, it's easily reconfigured.
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However, I'd also like an alphanumeric sequence, ideally
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(just my preference),
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sp-!-sp
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and that means some deeper recognizer, eh?
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