GZigZag - A Platform for Cybertext Experiments
Tuomas Lukka & Katariina ErvastiABSTRACT
This article describes GZigZag, which is currently the main project of the Hyperstructure Group at the univ. of Jyväskylä. GZigZag is an implemention of ZigZag, a computer paradigm invented by Ted Nelson. The paradigm abandons many currently central concepts, such as folders, files and applications, and instead offers a more flexible way to arrange information. Already at this early stage of development GZigZag has advantages compared with other computer systems.
1. INTRODUCTION
"COMPUTERS ARE FUNDAMENTALLY BROKEN" lectures Ted Nelson (7 February 2000). Unlike many other critics, he also offers ideas for improving the situation. Some of his ideas are currently being implemented by the Hyperstructure Group at the university of Jyväskylä, Finland. In this article we present a short summary of our ongoing work.
1.1 Defamiliarization of files, folders and applications
Nelson (1999a) offers many reasons for why users face difficulties with present PCs. This article only includes a short attempt to defamiliarize (1) folders, applications and files from the user's point of view. This is not an easy task, because folders, applications and files are one of the first things a beginner is taught and are not often questioned.
Hierarchical directories, also referred to as 'folders', were invented to help finding the right file among many files (Nelson 1999a). Let us say that in September -99 a writer has been writing an article dealing with the impossible nature of her cat Vilma. In September 2000 she wants to find the article again to edit it for a new purpose. In order to find the article, she opens a folder named 'Vilma'. The folder includes approximately twenty files, which are either versions of the final article or include some ideas the writer has considered worth writing down at some point of the writing process. The files have names such as vilma3.doc, vilma4.doc, vilfoo.doc and vilmaprob.doc. By the time the writer finished the article she had no time to make an index explaining the contents of each file. Finally, after opening and closing several files, she succeeds in finding the right file and starts working. When editing, she suddenly remembers that she had a slightly different version of a paragraph in another document. Once again, she has to start opening and closing files to find the right file.
Applications, then, are used for performing different tasks with the computer (Nelson 1999a). Problems arise when a user wants to use the same information in many applications. For example, a multimedia author, who has manipulated sound with SoundEdit, might want to use the sound in a multimedia presentation made with Macromedia Director. Since applications do not support all file formats, he has to find out which sound file formats Macromedia Director supports. After a study of sound file formats, he saves the file in a suitable format and imports it to Macromedia Director. Then, if he later views the presentation and wants to find a different sound sample, which he remembers recording in the same session, it will not be easy. This is because there is simply no connection between the Macromedia Director file and the original sound sample nor between the original sound sample and the second sample from the same session.
These examples demonstrate how the files and folders model of storing information is insufficient: it does not allow the users to track the conceptual relationships between related information or versions. Files, folders and applications are easy to understand but do not need to be, as Nelson (lecture, 30 August 2000) explains, fundamental concepts of software. The above problems could be solved by designing software differently, starting from different assumptions.
1.2 Traditions of Bush and Engelbart
Vannevar Bush and Douglas Engelbart developed ideas for tools that would improve the working conditions of people who perform complicated tasks in the complicated world. Bush, who had noticed the explosion of information already in the 1940's, is famous for proposing Memex, a "mechanized private file and library" designed to help individual scientists store and handle the growing amounts of information needed in their work (Bush 1945). Engelbart, the developer of NLS, a tool for collaborative work, writes about augmentation of man's intellect, which has been the goal of his work with computers. By augmenting man's intellect he means "increasing the capability of a man to approach a complex problem situation, gain comprehension to suit his particular needs and to derive solutions to problems" (Engelbart 1962). The purpose of our work is similar to Bush's and Engelbart's: we want to facilitate the production and arrangement of information by creating, as Nelson (1999b) expresses it, "a high-power personal and media system, with editing and presentation systems that expand the state of art".
2. BASICS OF ZIGZAG
Defining ZigZag is difficult, because ZigZag is so different from any software in the currently dominant computer paradigm. It is not an application but neither is it an operating system or a platform. It is a new way of putting information into computers, a cross between a database, a filesystem, a personal information manager and many others, and even that is not sufficient to describe it. ZigZag is simply something new and different.
3.1.1 Cells, Dimensions, Views and Applitudes
A ZigZag structure consists of cells and dimensions. A cell is the basic unit of information in ZigZag. A cell can contain an information unit of any kind, for example text (e.g. "Vilma"), an image (e.g. a picture of Vilma) or sound (e.g. "Meow" by Vilma). Cells can be connected with each other along dimensions, which are referred to with names such as d.1 or d.cursor. On each dimension, each cell can have two neighbours: a predecessor and a successor. The number of dimensions is not restricted, and it is easy to create new dimensions. For example, if Ville wants to comment on many different cells, he could use d.Ville-comment for connecting his comments to the cells.
Figure 1 shows a simple structure. In the Figure, cells are represented by rectangles and neighbours along a dimension by a line.
Figure 1.Seven cells, connected to each other along the two dimensions d.1 and d.2
There are several different visualizations (views) of the ZigZag structure. The views range from general views that are useful for looking at all kinds of structures to specific views that are useful for only one particular kind of structure. For example, Fig. 2 shows a generic view of a structure that represents a schedule of a day. This view can show any kind of structure in a fairly reasonable way, by showing the cells arranged along the dimensions and their text contents.
Figure 2.The most important events of a day in a general view
Figure 3, then, shows a specific view of the same structure. The underlying data is exactly the same, but the specific view designed especially for the purpose interprets the structure and draws the events in a more visual manner. Looking at another structure through this view would not make sense because the view is designed especially for this structure.
Figure 3.The same events in a specific view
Combining the specific view such as the schedule view above with special operations for editing such a structure, for example dragging the start and end times with the mouse makes an applitude. Thus, an applitude consists of views and operations designed for a particular purpose. Even though the term 'applitude' resembles the term 'application', there is an important difference: in ZigZag nothing is separate, and applitudes, unlike applications, can be combined with each other, as the example of the next section shows.
3.1.2 Example: Address Book and Family Tree in GZigZag
One of the first examples Nelson (pers.com., 25 August 2000) has used to demonstrate ZigZag is the Holm Family Demo, a family tree prepared for his talk at the University of Oslo to show how he is related to one of the professors of the university. Here, a variant of Nelson's original example is used, combined with an address book.
The structure of the address book is simple: it is a list of names and addresses . The names are listed along d.2 in alphabetical order. The addresses are connected to the names along d.1. Figure 4 shows the (incomplete) address book in the row view.
Figure 4. The address book in the row view.
Since the list of relatives is long, only a subset of it can be seen on the screen at a time. In Figure 4 the cursor is on the cell 'cousin 1'. Moving the cursor down would cause more cells below the 'grandfather 2' cell on d.2 to become visible.
Next, the address book is combined with the family tree, which is represented by a slightly more complicated structure, shown in Figure 3.
Figure 5. One family of the family tree in the row view
The two dimensions d.marriage and d.children are used to represent the family tree. Siblings are connected along d.children, and married couples along d.marriage (2). An extra cell ("+") is used on d.marriage to make the structure symmetric, and the list of children from the marriage on d.children starts from that cell. Figures 5 and 6 show two different views of the structure. The row view, as Figure 5 shows, enables dealing with one family at a time. The vanishing view shown in Figure 6 gives a better picture of the family tree as a whole.
Figure 6. The family tree in the vanishing view
It is important to realize that the same cells are used to represent the relatives in both the address book and the family tree, and that the connections related to the two applitudes are along different dimensions. In the default views only two or three dimensions (x,y,z) can be shown at the screen at a time. As it can be seen on Figure 4, the dimensions used for viewing the address book are x=d.1 and y=d.2. Rotating the dimensions to x=d.marriage and y=d.children shows the family tree, as in Figure 5.
The address book and the family tree could be combined with further applitudes. For example, a cell representing a person could also be connected to photographs and emails having to do with that person. Simply all related information could be connected so that it is easily accessible. A consequence of the ZigZag structure is that all connections are two-directional, which means that navigating between related information is easy.
3.2 Utility of GZigZag
ZigZag offers several advantages compared with existing computer systems. To begin with, as Nelson (pers.com., 25 August 2000) usually remarks after showing his Holm Family Demo, "we did not create a genealogy program". Modeling a complicated structure such as the family tree on usual computer systems would require creating a specific program for that purpose. Modeling a complicated structure using GZigZag requires only creating of new cells and connecting them along dimensions.
Remarkably, there are no separate files and applications in ZigZag. As seen above, the same cells can simultaneously be part of different structures without any restrictive boundaries. Thus, a multimedia author using GZigZag would not have the same problem as the multimedia author described in 2.1. Connecting the same cells in various structures also facilitates updating information. Updating the last name of a newly married aunt in the family tree and address book requires updating only one cell.
In addition to this, ZigZag is a more flexible way to arrange information than the conventional files and folders model. A certain piece of information is found by following the connections that the user has previously made based on his associations. Hence, a user of GZigZag does not need to remember file names in order to find the right information. The writer looking for a document containing an interesting paragraph about Vilma (described in 2.1) could simply follow a connection made previously. Also, moving between different versions of the same paragraph is simple when using the Xanadu content model.
Finally, ZigZag separates the structure and visualization of information. This is somewhat similar to HTML 4.0 and CSS, but ZigZag generalizes this: all structures and all visualizations are possible. The same GZigZag structure can be used in different media from mobile phones to the immersive virtual reality of the CAVE, because different visualizations can be constructed to take full advantage of each medium.
3. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
The primary purpose of this article, which is the first publication of the Hyperstructure Group, is to present a short summary of our ongoing work, especially GZigZag. This is not a simple task because we are dealing with such a different view of the computer. Indeed, the difficulty of explaining the new ideas to people has been one of the main problems of Nelson's broader Xanadu project.
In the near future we are focused on developing a stable, working GZigZag on the Java platform and cellular language Clang, which would make programming easier. We are also planning a network protocol for exchanging cells between computers and developing applitudes for several purposes in order to learn more about the system.
We believe that Nelson's ideas are creative, excellent, original and that they should finally be understood and implemented. Our long-term goal is to develop a computer system we would like to use ourselves. ;-)
Everyone interested in our project is welcome to test and work on the current version of GZigZag, which can be downloaded from the project's homepage. GZigZag is a free software project: the source code is released under the LGPL license and interested parties are welcome to join our mailing list. By the time this article is published, we hope to have released the first stable version (recommended for non-developers). "Patches", as people of the free software community say, and any other ideas of developing the system are gladly accepted.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Theodor Holm Nelson and Marlene Mallicoat for our collaboration. We would also like to thank the other members of the Hyperstructure Group: Tuukka Hastrup, Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho and Vesa Parkkinen.
FOOTNOTES
REFERENCES
Print References
Fowler, Roger (1986). Linguistic Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Electronic References
Bush, Vannevar (1945). As We May Think.
Available in the Internet: http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htmEngelbart, Douglas (1962). Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework.
Available in the Internet: http://www.histech.rwth-aachen.de/www/quellen/engelbart/ahi62index.htmlNelson, Ted (1999a). Ted Nelson's Computer Paradigm, Expressed as One-Liners.
Available in the Internet: http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ted/TN/WRITINGS/TCOMPARADIGM/tedCompOneLiners.htmlNelson, Ted (1999b). ZX Views.
Available in the Internet: http://www.xanadu.com/FW99/ZXviews.htmlOther References
Nelson, Ted. Lectures at the University of Jyväskylä. 7 February 2000 & 30 August 2000.
Nelson, Ted. Conversation with the authors. 25 August 2000.
