Lincks

• lincks home page
• lincks-to-http gateway
• Lincks stuff in the linux archive at sunsite

lincks terminology, features, and issues

object database

nifty multi-user read/write object databse (using Sun RPC)

item/object/component/node

the "ur-element" in the databse: has an unstructured IMAGE, a set of name-value pairs called ATTRIBUTES, and a set of LINKS to other nodes. there's an isomorphism to an SGML element in here somewhere.

composite object

the thing you "visit" -- built from a root node and a "Generic presentation descriptor" or GPD, kinda like a DTD/stylesheet combo.

Lincks. vs. Engelbart's requirements

• mixed objects: in the model, but not in the xlincks interface only supports text.
• explicitly structured documents: yes!!!
• view control: yes!!!
• basic hyperdocument with links: yes (user interface a little clumsy)
• back-link capability: hmmm... in the model, it's possible...
• library system: this could be a part (need to scale it up to something like harvest, though)
• hyperdocument mail: need to add RFC822/SMTP, MIME, NTTP support.
• Personal Signature Encryption: need a "canonical" byte-sequence representation of a reference structure for digital signatures.
• Access Control: in the works, I understand
• Readable link addresses: The HTTP gateway shows this can be done.

Misc Notes

• should support #part feature: display object X with GPD Y, and select object Z.
• 2.1.4: "How do I ... find out what can be expanded." The user interface doesn't give any indication. This is bad.
• needs lots of presentation sugar: Text wrapping, inline objects, graphics, tables
• web interface: a links database should be able to export the HTTP interface easily through a gateway, but another nifty feature would be to include objects from "the world" in a lincks editing session and in the lincks database.
• should incoroporate some dumb filesystem interface (ala file: urls)
• should make things easier for non-programmer/administrator types. Just type "xlincks" and get added to the system, see you home directory, etc.
• need fulltext searching features (use trigrams?)
• need to be able to gateway to fulltext search databases etc.
• what is the "interface" (in the M3 sense) to the database?
• use for project management: problem/issue tracking, schedules, design documents, meeting notes, etc.
• trying to find isomorphisms between lincks and SGML: e.g. should be able to import/expor the lincks database in sgml. What would the DTD for that look like? (done)
• trying to find isomorphisms between lincks and ILU