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Aucbvax.2320 fa.works utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!works Thu Jul 16 19:30:45 1981 Re: Making paper go away >From Zellich@OFFICE-3 Thu Jul 16 19:27:50 1981 In response to the message sent 14 July 1981 1211-EDT (Tuesday) from Joe.Newcomer@CMU-10A

Well, there is already a way to scan quickly through files: it's called structured (or hierarchical, or whatever) files a la Engelbart's NLS (now called Augment) and (Ted Nelson's ?) Hypertext.

You can look at one or more levels, and independently one or more lines of those levels, and open up or close up the part on your screen to see more or less. It makes it very fast to see what is in a document you've never seen before, or to find something specific in an old document when you don't know it's exact location. You may even be able to "address" desired text by context. Combined with a windowing capability, a pointing mouse, and auxiliary 5-key keyset, this gives an extremely powerful tool - now if only it came packaged in a briefcase-sized personal DEC-10...

Structured files are great, but do have an interface problem because the rest of the world uses "flat" files - it's not always easy to translate between the two - especially if there is highly-formatted text like columnated tables, or "drawings" (dot-and-dash boxes, etc.). Of course, the interface with the rest of the world is a problem when using *any* advanced system - I might have a little trouble putting a Star icon in a netmail message, too.

-Rich -------

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