[TxMt] Re: Mathematica (with a bit of TextMate theology as bonus)

[rafale labosk]

--- Jacob Rus <jrus at hcs.harvard.edu> wrote:

> You'll have to explain this; I can't understand what
> you mean.  Smart 
> folders currently have nothing to do with TM, as far
> as I know.  What 
> metadata are you talking about, what html schemes
> links, and what tmproj 
> pane mechanisms?  None of these ring any bells.
> 

You're argument for breaking the pedagogic rules is
not lost. That said, list or non-algol programming
does not necessarily fit any pre-defined patterns.
You're not solving a problem, but setting up the
parameters for a solution to emerge. Time will tell if
TM's pattern matching system is conducive to this way
of thinking. It actually does not matter on another
level since the system is a productivity boon no
matter which way you cut it.

Regarding the smart folder paragraph:

Yes, TM has something to do with smart folders, or
smart folders have something to do with TM, depending
on your point of reference. Both points of reference
are good.

Illustrating mechanically:

Let's assume this you want to research a body of
knowledge.

How do you go about collecting the info? The net,
articles, books etc. You store this information on
your HD, preferably as --small txt files-- or refined
clippings. This is actually critical given Spotlight's
current limitations.

You then need metadata the to understand the
overriding concepts. Try dynamic raw spotlight queries
of the kMDItemTextContent variety, for instance. Then
whatever raw queries you've set up as smart folders
will produce text files fitting the query parameter
(you can make this quite complex). What's interesting
here is that the same text file can be in N smart
folders. You now have a basis for forming sets of
metadata that semantically mean something.

For instance, simplistically, if I wanted to create a
set called OptionsTrading (the tmproj filename), I'd
look at smart folders with Options, Volatility and
Risk labels for complex queries.

Now take each smart folder content and drop it into a
tmproj pane. Group the text files with your keyboard
shortcut (Options, Volatility, Risk) >> you get an
outline with the same files sometimes in different
groups courtesy of unix aliases.

Better yet, you have the basis of a knowledge system
that can be elegantly reviewed and navigated. It works
and is a 3 minute exercise assuming you're smart
folders are set up. TM becomes a Reader.

You can therefore use TM to outline in a non-linear
fashion. You can further refine inside tmproj with
search criteria and all text tools at your disposal.

TM is great as a linear coding tool. Outlining
concepts need not be linear and, while it needs
outline polish, TM seems to handle it at the basic
level so far if you lever the Finder's techs. This is
not far removed from TM's structured text credo.

Of course, all this depends on your working
preferences.

The question is how do you link the text in-between
the files in tmproj? I'll leave that for another day.





 
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