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- Auxiliary windows: there are two kinds
of windows in the xlincks
system which don't directly display
information from the database. These are history graphs and the
reference structure graphs.
- Binding Table: tells the versions of the
components which make up a version of a composite object.
- Command History: a record of the
relative order in which database and workspace operations have
occurred and which object versions were affected. It is
intended for use in future A.I. reasoning and for construction
of past states of the database.
- Command Menu
: the first window which
appears when you start xlincks
. It contains buttons for
executing various xlincks
commands.
- Composite object:
an object which is made up of a root object and one or several
`components' (see below). A composite object is defined by
combining a root object and a Generic Presentation Descriptor
. A composite object is
displayed in a single window.
- Component:
a part of a composite object. Each component is a single
information component. Note that it is possible that only a
particular part of the information component might be visible in the
window as an `item'.
- Expand: in the context of
xlincks
, expansion means that a composite object item is
`opened' for viewing and editing. When you expand on an item
in a window, you open a window holding a composite object where
the root of the composite object is the component to which that
item belongs.
- Generic Presentation Descriptor
(GPD): the template (form) used to create a
view (see below). The combination of a root object and a GPD
is used to create a composite object. The GPD defines
the possible components of a composite object, how to access
them in the database, which parts of the components show be
displayed in a view of the composite object, as well as any
special formatting characteristics,
- GPD map: a group of GPD's which may or may not
be related in some way. Simply a grouping mechanism. The
LINCKS
system looks for GPD's in the GPD maps in the system
root object and in the user root object. Other maps (either
new ones or other users' maps) that you wish to use will have
to be linked in to the user root GPD map.
- History: for the user of xlincks
,
history usually means temporal history --- or the history of
how an object (either a composite object or a information
component) has developed over time. See also `Command history'
above.
- Information component: a single database unit made up of links, attributes,
and image. An item in the window is a displayed part of an
information component. An information component can be viewed
using the `node' view.
- Item: the smallest indivisible unit in a
view, for example a paragraph, title, date, etc. Each item is
an indivisible part of an information component (attribute, image,
link tag, etc.).
- Parallel Editing: given the
multi-user nature of the LINCKS
system, and given the ability
to share objects, it might be a common occurrence that two users
edit a particular information component simultaneously. (Note, of
course, that the item that they edit might not be the same part
of the information component.) When this occurs, the users are
warned that this is happening. At present, there is no
automagic merging of the parallel objects into a single
object. Rather, they will be parallel versions in the history
and the last one saved will be the `latest', which means that
it will be the one retrieved by default the next time that
object is retrieved. If merging is desired, it will have to
be done manually.
- Placeholder: indicates that an item in
that view is non-existent in the database (when surrounded by
) or that it is a null string (when
preceded by empty:) Sections 5.3
and 5.4 give a full explanation of the
semantics of both.
- Promote: promote means to copy an
old version of either a composite object or a component and
make that be the latest version of the object. In so doing,
you essentially go back in time to use an older version.
Without promoting it, an old version of an object is not
editable.
- Reference structure: an internal
structure used to represent the logical decomposition of a
composite object as described by a GPD. The reference structure
consists of a template structure, which is a direct
representation of the GPD, and a target structure, which
contains the actual information items obtained by applying the
template (GPD) to the database relative to a given root
object.
- Root object: an information component which
is conceptually at the `top' of the reference structure. It is
the beginning of the `search path' in building the view.
- Transient: a version of an object
which has been created in a user's workspace but which has not
been saved to the database. Transient objects disappear if they
are not saved before logging out.
- View: a representation of a composite object on the screen.
The difference between a `composite object' and a `view' is that
a view is made up of `items', not `information components'.
Next: Index
Up: The xlincks User's Manual
Previous: The `dump file
Martin Sjolin
Mon May 29 19:53:45 MET DST 1995