CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
SDS Variations and Front-End, Design of

0402 -
0402 -    ..
0402 - Summary/Objective
0405 -
040501 - Follow up ref SDS 5 0000. ref SDS 4 0000.
040502 -
040503 - SDS is a very complex application. We tend to make it more complex by
040504 - mixing several aspects of its complexity without regard to
040505 - definitions and understanding.
040507 -  ..
040508 - This is an attempt to partition the understanding of SDS into more
040509 - manageable chunks.
040510 -
040511 -
040513 -  ..
040514 - The Workability of SDS
040515 -
040516 - Even here, there is division.
040517 -
040518 - Clearly, SDS works, and works extremely well, for Rod Welch, its
040519 - author. One has only to talk with him on the phone while he retrieves
040520 - information spread across years in real time to see that, for Rod at
040521 - least, SDS is an extremely workable application.
040523 -  ..
040524 - Rod has demonstrated his expertise and the utility of SDS on numerous
040525 - applications, and has case studies demonstrating that utility.
040526 -
040527 -    Rod's record on 061018, ref SDS 3 0001 lists 54 studies on various
040528 -    aspects of a single subject, illustrating support for assembling
040529 -    associated history.
040531 -     ..
040532 -    The entire SDS record routinely presents studies to make sense of
040533 -    complex history, e.g., on 020504 ref SDS 1 NS6F showing difficulty
040534 -    people have following legal and contractual requirements for
040535 -    documentation...
040537 -  ..
040538 - Gary Johnson has been using SDS for several years, and has found it
040539 - valuable even though he uses only the smallest fraction of the
040540 - capabilities of SDS.
040541 -
040542 -
040544 -  ..
040545 - Why Does SDS Work?
040546 -
040547 - This question has different answers, depending on who you ask.
040548 -
040549 - Some have said that SDS works only for Rod and then only because it
040550 - matches Rod's idiosyncrasies so well.
040552 -  ..
040553 - A broader answer involves a working theory of knowledge.  Rod has
040553 - evolved a model of knowledge that works for him and is the basis of
040553 - ongoing developments in SDS, as explained in POIMS, ref OF 3 0367.
040557 -  ..
040558 - Whether that theory is valid is an open question. But then, whether
040559 - there is any accurate theory of knowledge is also an open question.
040561 -  ..
040562 - Trying to answer the question of Why SDS Works using a theory of
040563 - knowledge is beyond the scope on this record, and possibly beyond my
040564 - scope entirely.
040565 -
040566 -
040568 -  ..
040569 - How Does SDS Work?
040570 -
040571 - This has to do with the mechanics of SDS. This area is large and
040572 - complicated, but manageable. It is covered in SDS documents to a
040573 - great degree, but there is no conventional users manual for SDS.
040574 -
040575 -
040577 -  ..
040578 - What Underlies SDS?
040579 -
040580 - The underpinnings of SDS are far simpler to state, but they too are
040581 - complicated.
040582 -
040583 - Underlying SDS is a primitive line--oriented DOS editor written in
040584 - 16-bit assembly language. It supports a macro language that allows
040585 - programatic control of editing a text file. The macro language can be
040586 - scripted. SDS macros (scripts) work by modifying other macros to
040587 - handle parameter passing, context sensitivity, and many other complex
040588 - features.
040590 -  ..
040591 - The majority of the complexity at this level stems from the nature of
040592 - the editor. It is written in a 16-bit model and uses segment
040593 - addressing exclusively. It also uses nearly every trick available to
040594 - assembly language programmers in tight memory environments before the
040595 - advent of structured programming, let alone object oriented
040596 - programming.
040598 -  ..
040599 - Add to that a couple of decades of tweaks, from experience using SDS
040600 - for increasingly ambitious real-world work. and the result becomes
040601 - very complex.  But -- it is finite.  Not nearly the same as trying to
040602 - understand all the aspects of SDS as an application, a philosophy, and
040603 - a collection of techniques.
040605 -  ..
040606 - It should be noted that, in spite of everything, the existing MEDIT
040607 - and its macro language have allowed the development of the SDS
040608 - application with its huge amount of work product stretching over
040609 - decades -- a feat matched by no other known efforts.
040610 -
040611 -
040612 -