Links

Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Oct 26, 2007 at 01:30 PM

Stephen R. Diamond wrote:
>So a
>link does have direction, which I guess should have been obvious from the procedures
>in making hyperlinks. Actually, when I use hyperlinks, say in OneNote, I usually want
>a directionless connection. So, I have to make two hyperlinks.
> >So it must be false
>that programs with “linking” avoid posing a choice about
>subordination-superordination. A wiki is completely isoomorphic with an outline
>with cloning. Or is there some distinction I’m missing?
> I don’t think I agree with this statement completely. I can see how this does blur the lines a little. However, the purpose of an outline, even one with cloning, is to impose a hierarchy of ideas—without this hierarchy an outline becomes somewhat meaningless. In a wiki, links (though they may be directional) are not necessarily intended to create superiority or subordination. For instance, I can have a link from item A to item B and from item B to item C and from item C to item A.

I guess, what this boils down to for me is what the user is intending. I see the links in a wiki not as a way to impose structure, but as a convenient method for creating and navigating to related topics. There is no logical reason a program couldn’t provide both a rigid hierarchical categorization and have wiki linking—you would just need to select a parent topic when creating the linked item. In fact, I believe this is exactly the way Wikidpad works.

Steve Z.