Eugene Eric Kim
eekim@eekim.com


Memorandum

Date: Fri, 05 May 2000 11:43:00 -0700 (PDT)

From:   Eugene Eric Kim
eekim@eekim.com
Reply-To: unrev-II@egroups.com

To:     unrev-II@egroups.com

Subject:   Research Narrative for OHS/DKR

Responding to the Rod Welch letter on May 4, 2000 commending scope and utility of tools for OHS and DKR set out in my letter earlier today, and asking for examples of work product...]

I wish that these tools were actually in existence, but they're mostly on paper. One of the big reasons for this is UI constraints, something I briefly mentioned at my April 6 presentation. The first tool I started building was the bibliography manager, and I naturally tried to whip together a quick, forms-based UI using Tk. It quickly became apparent that, even with highly structured data like bibliographic information, a forms-based UI was not going to be adequate. For notes and summaries, a forms-based UI is unthinkable. My temporary solution was to write command-line tools. I plan on experimenting with the PSGML emacs mode, but I haven't gotten around to that yet. Nevertheless, this experience emphasizes the need for a good, extensible XML editor as the basis for the OHS's editing component.

Incidentally, I was much inspired by the journal feature in your DKR tool, Rod. (Which, of course, Doug had also developed many years earlier.) For everyday tasks, journals are a fantastic complement to scheduling. Scheduling reveals your plan, journals reveal the extent to which you have achieved your plan, an important element of knowledge accumulation and bootstrapping.

Sincerely,

-Eugene

Eugene Eric Kim
eekim@eekim.com

Eugene Eric Kim
eekim@eekim.com
http://www.eekim.com/
"Writer's block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they
can have an excuse to drink alcohol." --Steve Martin