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POCKETOS-D1

=== 12.07.13

THE ZIGZAG PORTABLE / POCKET OPERATING SYSTEM

Theodor H. Nelson, Founding Designer, Project Xanadu

This is intended to be a brief summary of the original

 intention of what is now the XanaduSpace demo.

It was intended as a portable, or pocket, operating

 system that could be run anywhere.

For the moment I will call it PocketOS, which

 will surely never be its name if completed.

 Names which have been contemplated include

- ZZOOS (ZigZag Orthogonal Operating System)

- XANADOS, which unfortunately merges Xanadu

 with ZigZag conceptually

- ZX (it's on the Web in the first design; I can't

 even find it anymore, but it's at Xanadu Australia)

- TEDOS (absolutely not)

It is meant to provide Integrated Software in a sense

 that was popular in the 1980s, specifically software

 that does a lot of things you'd want in one framework--

 the equivalents of word processing, hypertext,

 organizers, spreadsheet and much more.

While conventional operating systems deal with

 hierarchical directories, conventional compiled

 applications and data to match the applications,

 this is built around hyperthogonal / zzstructure

 and its uses--

- a framework of zzstructure

- applitudes, which do the equivalent of applications

 in ZigZag structure by a combination of code and

 special-purpose views

- data in zzstructure

- code in zzdimensional languages + code in cells

- templates for specific forms of work,

 as clonable frames

XanaduSpace is intended to be only one such

 applitude, but it got away and took over.

=== === === INTENDED LEVELS OF THE SYSTEM

ROCK BOTTOM: ZIGZAG-- zzcells and code for

 basic ZigZag operations.

SANDY BOTTOM (covering the rock bottom)--

 additional interpretive code in cells.

A SCAFFOLDING WHERE ZZSTRUCTURES ARE

 ATTACHED, notably--

Main Street (horizontal)

Park Avenue (vertical)

Docks (where slices and zzstructures come and go

 under user control)

Coney Island (where dimwheels and viewwheels

 can be seen to go around)

ZZOGL, a glue layer between ZigZag and OpenGL

 with no action at a distance-- every viewable

 object is in a rank connected to its model object.

 This makes the construction of scenes,

 their actions and transitions, controllable by

 ZigZag operations.

THE FLOATINGWORLD SPACE THEATER,

 a viewing system for Zzogl.

XANADUSPACE, a specific system for viewing,

 editing and manipulating documents.

=== === === ZZ GRAPHICS IN N DIMENSIONS

 (never mind the several proposed trademarks,

 there's no point if they're not working).

The point is to be able to sworf any number of objects--

 changing position, angle, size, shape, color, texture--

 by changing the dimensions being currently shown

 in the X,Y and Z of FloatingWorld 3D. This gives us--

- sworfing of objects, changing position and size

 and shape

- transplosion, meaning the explosive movement

 of a bunch of objects from one set of positions to

 another

- folding spaces, wherein the dimensions are substituted

 1-to-1 or many-to-1 or 1-to-many or several-to-several,

 with amazing view results I can't describe

This has many many uses.

=== === === FUNDAMENTAL OPERATIONS FROM

 A USER'S POINT OF VIEW

My fundamental premise: THE USER ARRIVES RUNNING,

 has no time to read a manual.

TEXT:

- whatever is typed in immediately becomes an Item,

 mapped to zzcells, given a permascroll address and

 made available to the Xanadu level

- instead of mapping the items into sequence (as in

 word processing) or hierarchy (as in outliners),

 a new item joins a storm of items floating in space.

 The user stirs them, assigns them priority,

 gives them some connections, and they become

 (if desired) sequential text or xanaconnected pages.

NUMBERS AND SPREADSHEET FUNCTIONALITY:

Numbers are assigned to cells which can be embedded

 in Xanadu for calculation and re-use.

Dimension d.xeq handles spreadsheet functions

 and calculations of many kinds.

A document with embedded calculations may be

 created easily, rather than "embedding a spreadsheet."

=== DATABASE

ZigZag is intrinsically a database system.

=== GRAPHICS AND SYSTEM PROGRAMMING

A user may employ the macros already present

 (or which WILL be already present) to create a

 scene in XanaduSpace.

Cells may represent hanging-positions in space,

 and given multiple coordinates for sworfing.

=== HYPERTIME

Xanadu user operations are logged in hypertime.

 (I am wary of extending this fully to ZigZag.)

=== CREATING A XANADU VIEW

A Xanadu view is a set of pages hanging in some

 arrangement the user wants to present.

For this the user creates a set of hanging-points,

 or an algorithm for making hanging-points,

 and these hanging-points are assigned to pages.

=== CREATING A HOMEPLEX (equivalent of a

 "desktop" in ND)

The user assigns hanging-points, and their

 characteristic motions, to--

- texts

- zzprogs

- zzdata

etc.

=30=

raw

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