3 ms·

Let me try. Text is anything human-readable which supports easy editing in WYSIWYG way. For example: XML, maybe JSON, non-obfuscated source code, LaTeX notation

Let me try. Text is anything human-readable which supports easy editing in WYSIWYG way. For example: XML, maybe JSON, non-obfuscated source code, LaTeX notation for math, vector images, chess notation, etc. Diagrams are not text but they are easy to be describen in plain English, much easier than memes or photos. Electric circuit is a beautiful example between text and non-text. You know EC is drawing but any EC is made of hierarchy of two-port networks, so it is like system of equations written in unusual for mathematics way. You can add or erase any element or change any nominal and recalculate a new circuit instantly. If you have a friend working in an electronics, you can give him any valid EC and ask him what he gonna do with it. His answer will be reading, not just looking at.

Banana699 6y ago
Your definition appeals to tools and technological limitations, smalltalk had this notion that anything is editable, including the IDE itself and the (running!) programs. Your definition + a smalltalk IDE would imply that a running program is text. Furthermore, the abilities of the message reciever factor into this as well : web pages are editable, but somewhat non-trivially. So the combination of tooling and abilities could be used to argue that everything is text: for a graphics artist with even a paint instance running, a picture is the epitome of human readability and editabiliy, while chess sounds like a gibberish unicode file opened with a wrong encoding. That doesn't mean your definition is useless, its an interesting take to draw the lines between media along editabiliy, but I wouldn't call that a definition of text. It would exclude and include all the wrong things. One is really starting to believe Wittgenstein that all disagreements boil down to definitions.

3 ms·

Let me try. Text is anything human-readable which supports easy editing in WYSIWYG way. For example: XML, maybe JSON, non-obfuscated source code, LaTeX notation

by eimrine 6y ago

Banana699 6y ago
Your definition appeals to tools and technological limitations, smalltalk had this notion that anything is editable, including the IDE itself and the (running!) programs. Your definition + a smalltalk IDE would imply that a running program is text. Furthermore, the abilities of the message reciever factor into this as well : web pages are editable, but somewhat non-trivially. So the combination of tooling and abilities could be used to argue that everything is text: for a graphics artist with even a paint instance running, a picture is the epitome of human readability and editabiliy, while chess sounds like a gibberish unicode file opened with a wrong encoding. That doesn't mean your definition is useless, its an interesting take to draw the lines between media along editabiliy, but I wouldn't call that a definition of text. It would exclude and include all the wrong things. One is really starting to believe Wittgenstein that all disagreements boil down to definitions.