On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 2:17 PM, Terry Brown <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:47:57 -0800 (PST) > "Edward K. Ream" <[email protected]> wrote: > >> 1. Unlike any conceivable kind of linking, clones allow me to gather >> information together that I can browse *without* jumping around the >> outline. > > This use of clones is very cool, *if* you're comfortable learning and > then remembering not to break the rules you need to follow for this to > be safe.
Is it correct to say that you'll have no problems if you use the Leo app and just freely and unthinkingly use clones in one Leo file? No cross-file clones? < SNIP > >> Unlike with general graphs, each node in a DAGs has a natural set of >> descendants. Imo, this property makes DAGs more interesting, in >> general, than general graphs. > > As long as what you're trying to describe fits an descendant structured > model, not everything does. But an outline is a DAG. :-) I have found outlines a very useful base assumption to work with. This assumption provides a foundation that makes decisions about how things like clones work much easier than general graphs do. I think they will help considerably in modeling distributed and collaborative Leo (and versioning, for that matter). > I think it's ultimately a personal preference for cost / benefit > trade-off, safety and simplicity vs. utility. Clones are better than > anything else for constructing views, but not everyone considers the > increment in value equal to the increment in cost. > > This is all really separate from the issue of people trying to use them > to generate content, where getting the rules right is more complicated. The generating content thing is in tension with the fact Leo is a tool for working with external files for a particular kind of purpose: editing code, which is linear and of a nature where things have their (one) place. You're doing something wrong if you're creating external code files that are designed to have many places update with the same actual textual code, which you are aiming at changing in one location and having multiple places in the external files update textually and redundantly from that. Code isn't like that: you call a function that resides in its one right place, and update that single instance of that function, not replicate the text of that function all over. I tend to think that you have to choose between having a particular purpose in relationship to external files, or putting everything inside the Leo outline (i.e., no more files, just one uniform distributed format that serves in place of all files). People aren't thinking about making a uniform kind of format like that (everything inside the outline), so it's necessary to decide on the function in relation to external files that Leo is designed for. Trying to take the function Leo is designed for, and then add all sorts of other things (templating, general graphs), is just going to make the problem of keeping external files and the Leo outline in sync more complex, and possibly create purposes that are at odds with each other or otherwise impossible. Seth -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor?hl=en.
