Message-ID: <581@uw-beaver>
Date: Fri, 25-Jan-85 18:51:55 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.581
Posted: Fri Jan 25 18:51:55 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 27-Jan-85 07:21:50 EST
Sender: daemon@uw-beaver
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 28

From: Mark Zimmerman 

I just saw a demo of Xerox's NoteCards system and want to tell people about
it, so we can start working on a version for the Mac!  NoteCards is like an
extension of the desktop metaphor:  your screen has windows on electronic
index cards, each of which can contain text, pictures, etc., and links to
other cards.  Links can be of various types:  references/sourcing, argumentation,
proof, refutation, consequences, etc.  Cards can be filed in boxes, which
can contain other boxes, etc.  One can display graphically the links between
cards, to get an overall view of the information, or zoom in to look at all
the gory details when needed.

Esther Dyson wrote about NoteCards in the 31 Dec 84 issue of her newsletter,
RELease1.0 ... see that for further impressions.  Perhaps if there are experts
at Xerox PARC or elsewhere listening they can correct/extend my comments.

The Mac's TE and windowing should do a fair fraction of the work for a Mac
version/analog of NoteCards ... I am dreaming about writing up a first hack
at it in MacFORTH.

NoteCards is sort of a multidimensional ThinkTank (or rather, ThinkTank is
a 1-dimensional shadow of NoteCards) ... it looks likely to be a great tool for
gathering/organizing/presenting complicated data.  (Besides other features
described above, one can ask NoteCards to search along various types of links
to find various items, reorganize links, embed pointers to other cards within
the text/picture on a card, etc.)

Best,    Zimmermann at MITRE

Message-ID: <834@uw-beaver>
Date: Tue, 12-Feb-85 03:56:50 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.834
Posted: Tue Feb 12 03:56:50 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 13-Feb-85 03:07:50 EST
Sender: daemon@uw-beaver
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 14

From: Martin D. Katz 

Before trying to implement a NoteCard-like system on the Mac, you should be
aware that a similar system (but less fancy graphically) has existed on the
Apple II for three or four years.  It is an automated version of Mnemodex (a
copywritten and trademarked system), a system which is used for adaptive
indexing of materials.

The system began as a paper based system in the sixties, and was implemented
on the Apple in about 1980.  The original intent of the system was to ease
use of a personal library, but it was expanded to include office, telephone,
biographical, cooking, etc. files.  You might want to look into this sytem,
and see whether it has been implemented on the Mac before running off on
your own.

Message-ID: <845@uw-beaver>
Date: Wed, 13-Feb-85 02:44:25 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.845
Posted: Wed Feb 13 02:44:25 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 14-Feb-85 01:28:02 EST
Sender: daemon@uw-beaver
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 9

From: Martin D. Katz 

 >  What is the name of this "copywritten and trademarked system" for the
 >  Apple ][e, who publishes it and where can I learn more?

I seem to have lost my pointer to the author of the Mnemodex system.  The
person who introduced the system to me was Peter Freeman (Freeman@UCI.ARPA).
He is out of town this week, but it would probably be best to direct your
queries to him.