Filed as [Indigo]<Interscript>Slides>forum.tioga, .press
Last edited By Mitchell on November 29, 1982 7:07 pm
InterScript
Who is involved?
Why is it being done?
How would I know one if I saw it?
What are the interesting (hard) problems?
What will become of it?
Interscript Forum, 2.12.82
What is it?
A digital representation for editable documents
Interscript Forum, 2.12.82
Who is involved?
Interscript Forum, 2.12.82
Why is it being done?
Interscript Forum, 2.12.82
How would I know one if I saw it?
Interscript Forum, 2.12.82
What are the interesting (hard) problems?
Interscript Forum, 2.12.82
What will become of it?
Interscript Forum, 2.12.82
The interchange format as a language
Transcription and rendition
Layers of the standard
Content, form, value, and structure
Jim Horning:
Features of the base language
Jim Mitchell:
Transcription and rendition fidelity
The interchange format as a language
An Interdoc script is a program in the Interdoc language
Transcription:
editor representation > interchange
    (document > script)
Every script is transcribed before being editable
Rendition:
interchange > editor representation
    (script > document)
Layers of the standard
Layer 0: The syntax of scripts
Layer 1: The semantics of the base language
Layer 2: The semantics of generally shared properties and attributes
Layer 3: The semantics of properties and attributes to be shared by groups of communicating editors
Content, form, value, and structure
Content: "What" is in the document
Form: "How" it is to be viewed
Structure: Intended relations among values
Issues in Transcription
Fidelity: R(T(document)) = document
Process in left-to-right, depth-first orderto transmit without first storing
Standard external environment: units, definitions, abbreviations, . . .
T(R(T(document))) need not necessarily be the same as T(document)  extra hints are okay
Standard versus editor-specific transcription
Issues in Regeneration
S1 ← T1( D1) D2 ← R2(S1) S2 ← T2(D2)
S1 = S2?  D1 = R1(S2)?
S1 ← T1( D1) D'2 ← Edit(R2(S1)) S'2 ← T2(D'2)
What relation is there between S1 and S'2?
Determining which nodes have been altered directly or indirectly
Regenerating structure when relevant parts of the environment and contents have not changed since rendering
Can it be done as simply as normal transcription?
Requirements and Exclusions
An interchange standard must:
Use a universal character set
(graphic subset of ISO 646/ASCII)
Provide an acceptably efficient encoding
Be open-ended
Preserve document structure
Preserve document form
Provide faithful transcriptions
Simplify limited-fidelity rendition
Enable regeneration of scripts after editing with unaffected portions faithfully transcribed
Interdoc is not:
A file format
A standard for editing
A mechanism for combining documents
A substitute for other corporate standards
STANDARD DISCLAIMERS
1. WE ARE DESIGNING A STANDARD FOR INTERCHANGE, NOT EDITING.
2. EVERY SCRIPT IS RENDERED (parsed) BEFORE BEING EDITABLE.
3. STANDARDIZE CONCEPTS, NOT NAMES
4. COMBINING DOCUMENTS IS AN EDITOR, NOT AN INTERCHANGE TASK (corollary of 1).
5. GENSYM IS AN EDITOR FUNCTION (corollary of 1).
6. CHARACTER-SET AND LEXICAL ISSUES CAN BE RESOLVED AT THE END.
7. GET THE TECHNICAL BASIS RIGHT BEFORE WORRYING ABOUT THE POLITICAL ISSUES.