From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,ef5652f3baa771b0 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-07-03 07:35:22 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!uninett.no!ntnu.no!not-for-mail From: Preben Randhol Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada packages and/on web pages (was Re: GPGME (was Re: GnuPG binding?)) Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 14:35:22 +0000 (UTC) Organization: Norwegian university of science and technology Message-ID: References: <1403134.1xZY1MnvJa@linux1.krischik.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: kiuk0152.chembio.ntnu.no X-Trace: tyfon.itea.ntnu.no 1057242922 19621 129.241.83.78 (3 Jul 2003 14:35:22 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@itea.ntnu.no NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 14:35:22 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: slrn/0.9.7.4 (Linux) Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:40025 Date: 2003-07-03T14:35:22+00:00 List-Id: Georg Bauhaus wrote: >: Say >: tomorrow I want to start planning a program that can encrypt/decrypt >: streams. So I naturally wants to see if somebody else already has done >: this as a library I can use. So then [...] >: I'll have to try yahoo or google. > > This is the sad situation that is a necessary consequence of > not making cross references, via good hyperlinking. (You could > of course add c.l.ada, or collegues, or ... to your sources of > information. Just use the human _communications_ network (which > is also a social network).) But registering your link at places like freshmeat *IS* cross referencing. I cannot go into your page and put a link to my page f.ex. > I am trying to talk about authors who include helpful links to sources > of information in their articles about their software. Well were do one find the information then? > As an example, consider some > parts of the GNAT library sources. There are reference of the kind, > "this implementation is based on algorithm xyz, as published in > Wizards' Magazine, 1976". I don't need Ada power or Google at _that_ > point to find more comments about the implementation. No but how do you find gnat if you have no clue where it is? > As another example, consider a web page giving a bird's eyes view > of some package. The author might have written in the page's text, > > "The types in this package are derived from AUnit's ABC type." > > or, better, he or she might have written, > > "The types in this package are derived from >AUnit's ABC type." > > If the author chooses the second option, there is no need to > search Google for AUnit, and recursively for Unit testing and > Extreme programming. You will find enough information on the > linked page, which again (recursively) has pointers (links) to other > useful information, in this case, pointers to Unit Testing, > and Extreme Programming. (Transitive closure of good hyperlinks.) You are talking about referencing to others packages, but how do you get others to reference to *your* packages? Just look at this page: http://www.pvv.org/~randhol/Ada95/Klokka/ as you can see I do this, but it doesn't mean that GNAT will link to my small toy for experimenting with tasks and gtkada. So to get a reference to my tool I can register it at freshmeat f.ex so others can find it when they are looking for something similar. > So having good links is feasable, in fact the presence of URIs in > hypertext document type definitions has been a deliberate choice to > help make this cross referencing a reality ;-) The WWW _could_ be > a good dictionary, with search engines becoming just a useful add on. This is in my humble opinion theory at best, utopian at worst. Have you ever tried to read a heavily crosslinked document? You end up loosing the thread of the documentation due to too many possible detours. Hyperlinks are great, but should not be overused. -- Ada95 is good for you. http://www.crystalcode.com/codemage/MainMenu/Coding/Ada/IntroducingAda.php