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Excellent write up. I frequently wish descriptions like this existed in a fractal form with ever increasing complexity that could be "zoomed in" (or out) for m

Excellent write up. I frequently wish descriptions like this existed in a fractal form with ever increasing complexity that could be "zoomed in" (or out) for more or less detail. Many times the problem is the inverse, some overly generalized news blurb lacking details or even reference links. This seems like the well crafted super magnified version. I loved all of the in-line reference links!

yan 17y ago
This is actually exactly the project I've been planning for a while and am starting in a week or so! If you (or anyone really) are interested in hearing me out or helping, email me.
- ludwig 17y ago
  No way. I've also been thinking about that project for a while now.
  - Andys 17y ago
    Uhhh... tree structured documentation?
    - bsaunder 17y ago
      Yeah... But rather than just section headings, perhaps complete sentences that you could "zoom-in" to more detailed wording. Or if things seem to be too detailed, you could zoom-out. Seems hard to automate. Better writing could probably solve a lot of my frustration (not for this article though). An ideal application would be for educational material (such as this post). Where it's worth the significant human effort to craft the multiple variants of the subject.
      - HalcyonMuse 17y ago
        I'm a really noob coder, and not a web developer, so I don't know what functions etc are responsible for this, but couldn't you use the code governing the common "More..." link often used to truncate reviews? (e.g. Sesame Street is... (More...) - > Sesame Street is a children's show.) Also, each sentence could be an object of sorts with one value for the simplified version and references to other objects that constitute the detail of the simple sentence. The referenced objects could be of the same class, and, in turn, resolve to even further detail by reference. The pitfall is, of course, that it would require some extra thought while writing to keep everything cohesive and sensible with varying levels of complexity on the page at the same time.

yan 17y ago

This is actually exactly the project I've been planning for a while and am starting in a week or so! If you (or anyone really) are interested in hearing me out or helping, email me.

ludwig 17y ago
No way. I've also been thinking about that project for a while now.
- Andys 17y ago
  Uhhh... tree structured documentation?
  - bsaunder 17y ago
    Yeah... But rather than just section headings, perhaps complete sentences that you could "zoom-in" to more detailed wording. Or if things seem to be too detailed, you could zoom-out. Seems hard to automate. Better writing could probably solve a lot of my frustration (not for this article though). An ideal application would be for educational material (such as this post). Where it's worth the significant human effort to craft the multiple variants of the subject.
    - HalcyonMuse 17y ago
      I'm a really noob coder, and not a web developer, so I don't know what functions etc are responsible for this, but couldn't you use the code governing the common "More..." link often used to truncate reviews? (e.g. Sesame Street is... (More...) - > Sesame Street is a children's show.) Also, each sentence could be an object of sorts with one value for the simplified version and references to other objects that constitute the detail of the simple sentence. The referenced objects could be of the same class, and, in turn, resolve to even further detail by reference. The pitfall is, of course, that it would require some extra thought while writing to keep everything cohesive and sensible with varying levels of complexity on the page at the same time.