ConnectedText versus Ndxcards

Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Oct 23, 2007 at 05:18 PM

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>Having dabbled with various wiki-style PIMS (the concept of which I like, but have yet
>to get over the hurdle of adapting to all the conventions required to use them
>effectively), it seems to me that there are some functional differences between
>wiki-style linking and cloning in an outline.

As is no doubt obvious, I have not dabbled. My habit—for better or worse—is to obsess good and long before actually trying something new.

In the wiki the connections are
>instantly visible as you are reviewing the content of the note, whereas you have to
>look for and search an outline to understand the context. I would also suggest, though
>this is just my own theory, that the connections in a wiki are more organic—that is,
>they arise more naturally as the content develops—than in an outline (whether or not
>this is a benefit probably depends upon your purpose).

One question would concern the extent to which the differences you observe are inherent to Wikis or arise because of arbitrary or adventitious correlations between the basic approach and the features you value. Bracketing wikis for the moment, because of my fundamental ignorance, consider the difference between hierarchical key words and outlines. As often conceived, it boils down to a more formalism: do you drag children to parents, as in outlines, or do you parents to children, as in key words. No doubt some people prefer one or the other, but the distinction doesn’t seem to deserve to be called fundamental.

There is, I think, a distinction worth making between the real cores of the two approaches. In an outline you can subordinate to items; with a categorical approach (which seems more apt than ‘keyword,’ considering what the distinction actually amounts to) items you can subordinate to are disinguished from he basic ‘note’ unit. This lends itself to the category tree but doesn’t require it. Programs outputting an apparent quasi-outline can be categorical in nature. Black Hold Organizer comes to mind.

In theory, you could drag from parent to child and have an outline strucure. A program could accomplish this if the outline turned any categorized item into a category. This would suit someone who like to drag to subordinates instead of to parent but wants the greater flexibility of an quasi-outliner as opposed to system of relatively fixed categories.

All I’m getting at is that the clusters of features that existing programs present do not necessarily reflect what’s possible or what’s responsible for valued features.

>Finally, a wiki allows for
>connections between notes without imposing a judgment about which is the superior
>thought or idea. That isn’t always benefit, as it is important to be able to create that
>kind of organization, especially when writing—which, I assume, is why CT has now
>added the outlining feature.
> >Steve Z.