On Fri, 2 Jul 1999, Lotzi Boloni wrote:

> > >   It is somewhat similar to the Slashdot "Everything" and to a Windows
> > > shareware program called "The Brain".
> > 
> > Will this be a tool for the so called "Mind Mapping" technique ?
> 
>   I guess this is that funny brainstorming stuff they are experimenting
> recently, no? I've just made some search on the web to see how this should
> look like. Well, yes, it can be used for that - probably with some
> extentions to make that kind of hierarchies. I some sence it is even
> simpler, because they don't seem to have crosslinks.

I was discussing a program like this with Cristian Tibirna just a few days
ago, but out of respect for my existing KDE projects I decided not to
pursue this idea for some time. 

A program like this would be great (I would use it for everything! :) but
while the concept is quite simple and powerful, making a GUI that is
usable by normal users for this would be kind of tricky ("normal" users
don't really care about the abstract power of Entity/Relationship if they
have to use too many mouseclicks to use the program).

So the idea is for some uses it has to look like a "normal"  database app
with records etc and templates for common entities and the relationships
between them. (eg creating a new "Person" from a template would create a
single "Name" Entity with a list of common child entities, eg URL,
Address, DOB etc). Interestingly, even the templates are entities, and
could be managed the same way as normal entities, but as children of
Entity "Templates" :). Further, Templates could be further related with an
"Inherits" relationship so that "Corporation" would inherit from "Person" 
but add some extra fields. :) 

I also had some ideas about the design. To simplify implementation, an
Entity should not store information about its children or associations
itself, but in a separate Relationship Manager, which can be queried to
return relationships for particular objects or search queries (eg: "all
nodes related to "KDE Project" and "Graphics"). This will sort out some
object ownership issues, I think, and make it easier to edit
relationships. Plus it will be easier to store the information in
configurable backends like an SQL server when the size of the knowledge
base becomes large. 

Anyway, like I said I can't work on this project in good faith until I
have .0 releases of KDOC and KActions, but I am willing to offer what
little assistance I can. It is just that an idea of an app like this
excites me a lot. :)

-Taj.

Sirtaj S. Kang       taj@kde.org         ssk@physics.unimelb.edu.au
Univ of Melbourne	
			"I'm a commercial operating system."
				-Doug Michels (CEO SCO)