Category : Word Processors
Archive   : HYPELNK.ZIP
Filename : NEEDS
³Actual vs. Apparent Needs³
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Computers are frequently criticized for the discrepancy between their
abilities for providing facts, compared to much lesser capabilities in
helping generate ideas. What is worse, we adapt our tasks to the tools at
hand, i.e. will often substitute mechanical flashiness for creativity.
If the above reminds you of the lament of the shopper in the hardware
store "I don't really want to buy a drill, what I need is a hole", the
similarity is misleading. We cannot do without tools. The problem is that
the tools available do not meet our actual, more complex needs. Even worse,
they tend to divert us from more important goals and pursuits. The typical
response to this critique of standard computer usage would probably be:
"You seem to be looking for some sort of easy-to-use Expert-system,
decision-tree capability. There are
for major business or life-and-death decisions, you could soon use".
What seems to be overlooked, is that relatively complex database searches,
and to some degree decision-making, can be made much more efficient by the
simple addition of the approximate search and interactive visual tools
proposed here to existing database, spreadsheet and (hyper)text programs.
Rather than the obvious Emergency Response, Intelligence and Military
InfoMaps applications, here are some examples in the field of Publishing:
þ Author's aids in topic structuring, and decisions regarding order of
presentation and continuity. Particularly suited for coordinating the
interaction of multiple authors. Editor's aid in evaluating the structure
of articles and books and streamlining the presentation.
þ A tool for automating the preparation of guidemaps to any text.
þ Help pave the way to alternative hypertext versions of textbooks, etc.,
oriented towards interactive use and permitting the user to extract and
preserve his/her own overviews of the subject area.
þ Automatically generated Specialty Topics maps showing the relationship
of the publication to other publications from the same or other sources.
Note that these possibilities involve the more creative, less structured
areas. Further uses exist as visual aids in, say, Standard Generalized
Markup Language, and Reference Work applications.
All such tools require the introduction of !
similarity concepts, somewhat akin to what is done in Pattern Recognition.
Very nice! Thank you for this wonderful archive. I wonder why I found it only now. Long live the BBS file archives!
This is so awesome! 😀 I’d be cool if you could download an entire archive of this at once, though.
But one thing that puzzles me is the “mtswslnkmcjklsdlsbdmMICROSOFT” string. There is an article about it here. It is definitely worth a read: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/mtswslnk/