There are two big priorities underlying the design of *The Local Yarn*.

The first is that it will live in two places: on a web server, and on bookshelves. The web server, because it’s a fun, fast way to publish writing and code to the whole world (you knew that already); but also on bookshelves, because <i>[a web server is like a projector][1]</i>, and I want to be able to turn it off someday and still have something to show for all my work.

[1]:

The other priority is simply that, in both media, the product should have a “functional attractiveness”, as embodied in this quote from [Samuel Rogers][2] that I’ve had on my site for twenty years:

>“Yet modest ornament with use combined
Attracts the eye to exercise the mind.”

[2]:

## Information model

Because of its dual print/web nature, and because it is somewhat more complicated than your typical blog, I’ve come up with a set of common terms to describe everything.

The Local Yarn is mostly comprised of *Articles* (individual writings) which may contain *Notes* (addenda by the author or others) and may also be grouped into *Series*. These are similar to a typical blog’s *posts, comments* and *categories*, but there are important differences (see [Differences from from blogs)).

### Articles

Articles have the following properties:

* A *publish date* and an optional *last updated date*.
* An **optional** *title*
* An *author* (optional)
* A *series* (optional) to which the article belongs, which also indirectly determines the article’s *singular noun*.
* A *document body*. The structure and features of the body text follow from [Pollen Markup).
* A *conceal directive* (optional) that can be used to prevent display of the article in various contexts: series listings, in print editions, or in the RSS feed. The template used for new/draft articles will include a directive to conceal from all of these by default. (Such an article, if included in a sync to the live web server, will still be accessible on the web via its direct URI.)
* Optionally, one or more follow-up *Notes* — any of which may also indirectly determine the article’s *disposition verb* (e.g. “disavowed”) and *disposition date* (which is the date of the Note). If more than one note in an article specifies a disposition verb, the most recent one takes precedence.

An article can start out very small — just a date and a few sentences — and later grow in any of several directions. Notes can be added, or a title, or cross-references to later articles; or it may be added to a series. Or it may just remain the way it started.

### Series

A Series is like an article in that it has its own body, but it has the additional effect of grouping individual articles together into a particular order. It has the following properties:

* A *name*
* A *creation date*
* An *order* for its member articles, which can be one of:
  1. Reverse chronological, or *Blog order*
  2. Ascending chronological, or *Journal order*
  3. Arranged by subject matter (as with chapters in a book), or *Pagetree order*
* A *plural noun* which applies to all its member articles as a group (e.g. “Speculations”)
* A *singular noun* with an indefinite article “a” or ”an”, which applies to each of its member articles individually (e.g. “a speculation”).
* A *document body* which appears on the series’s main page, and whose markup also dictates whether/how the listing of its member articles will be presented.

## Visual Design

The stuff described above gets translated into web and print designs.

## HTML markup

**“Listing” context: complete articles/notes:**

    <!-- Article with a title -->
    <article>
      <h1 class="entry-title hentry">ARTICLE TITLE</h1>
      <p class="time">
        <a href="#here" class="rel-bookmark">
          <time datetime="2017-11-08" class="published">November 8, 2017</time>
        </a>
      </p>
      <section class="entry-content">ARTICLE BODY
      </section>
      <footer class="article-info">
        <span class="x">(</span>
        This is ARTICLE-NOUN, part of <a href="#">‘Series Name’</a>.
        <span class="x">)</span>
      </footer>
    </article>

    <!-- Article without a title -->
    <article>
      <h1 class="no-title hentry">
        <a href="#here" class="rel-bookmark">
          <time datetime="2017-11-08" class="entry-title published">November 8, 2017</time>
        </a>
      </h1>
      <section class="entry-content">ARTICLE BODY
      </section>
      <footer class="article-info">
        <span class="x">(</span>
        This is ARTICLE-NOUN, part of <a href="#">‘Series Name’</a>.
        <span class="x">)</span>
      </footer>
    </article>

    <!-- Notes -->
    <article class="with-title hentry">
      <h1 class="entry-title">A note from AUTHOR, re: <a class="cross-reference"
      <p class="time"><a href="#here" class="rel-bookmark note-permlink">
        <time datetime="2004-04-24">April 24, 2004</time>

      <section class="entry-content">
        NOTE CONTENTS
        <p class="signoff"><i>&mdash; <a
      </section>
    </article>


Coming at some point:

* Typographic conventions
* Web design notes (HTML markup structure, etc)
* Print design notes