Index: code-docs/design.scrbl ================================================================== --- code-docs/design.scrbl +++ code-docs/design.scrbl @@ -59,12 +59,12 @@ The @deftech{article} is the basic unit of content, like a typical blog post. In the web edition, each article has its own @tt{.html} file; in print editions, an article may comprise either a chapter or a part of a chapter, depending on the content. -An article can start out very small — just a date and a few sentences. Supplying a title is -optional. Later, it may grow in any of several directions: @tech{notes} can be added, or a title, or +An article can start out very small — just a date and a few sentences. @bold{Supplying a title is +optional.} Later, it may grow in any of several directions: @tech{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. @subsection{Notes} @@ -120,44 +120,53 @@ (list "Moderation (if done) is typically binary: approved or not" "Moderation may take the form of edits and inline responses."))] @subsection{Series} -A @deftech{series} is a grouping of @tech{articles} into a particular order under a heading. -A series may present its own written content alongside the listing of its articles. +A @deftech{series} is a grouping of @tech{articles} into a particular order under a descriptive +title. A series may present its own written content alongside the listing of its articles. The page for a series can choose how to display its articles: chronologically, or in an arbitrary -order. It can display articles only, or a mixed listing of articles and notes, like the blog. And it -can choose to display articles in list form, or as excerpts, or in their entirety. +order. It can display articles only, or a mixed listing of articles and @tech{notes}, like the blog. +And it can choose to display articles in list form, or as excerpts, or in their entirety. + +A series can specify @italic{nouns} (noun phrases, really) to be applied to its articles. So, for +example, a series of forceful opinion pieces might designate its articles as @emph{naked +aspirations}; the phrase “This is a naked aspiration, part of the series @italic{My Uncensored +Thoughts}” would appear prominently in the margins. Likewise, a time-ordered series of observations +might call its articles “journal entries”. -A series can specify @italic{nouns} to be applied to its articles. +It will be easy for any series to become a printed @emph{book}, using the techniques I +demonstrated in +@ext-link["https://thelocalyarn.com/excursus/secretary/posts/web-books.html"]{@italic{The Unbearable +Lightness of Web Pages}}, and in @other-doc['(lib "bookcover/scribblings/bookcover.scrbl")]. @subsubsection{Series vs. blog “categories”} -Typical blogs are not very good at presenting content that may vary a lot in length and style. The -kind of writing I want to experiment with may change a lot from day to day, season to season, decade -to decade. I wanted a single system that could organize and present it all, in a thoughtful, -coherent way, rather than starting a new blog every time I wanted to try writing a different kind of -thing. +Typical blogs are not very good at presenting content that may vary a lot in subject, length and +style. The kind of writing I want to experiment with may change a lot from day to day, season to +season, decade to decade. I wanted a single system that could organize extremely varied kinds of +writings and present them in a thoughtful, coherent way, rather than starting a new blog every time +I wanted to try writing a different kind of thing. My solution to this was to enrich the idea of “categories”. Rather than being simply labels that you slap on blog posts, they would be titled collections with their own unique content and way of presenting articles and notes. In addition, they could pass down certain properties to the posts -they contain, that can be used to give signals to the reader about what they are looking at. +they contain, that can be used to give signals to the reader about what they are looking at. @tabular[#:sep @hspace[1] #:style 'boxed #:row-properties '((bottom-border top)) (list (list @bold{Typical Blog Categories/Tags} @bold{Local Yarn @emph{Series}}) (list "Every article needs to have one" "Many or most articles won’t have one") (list "Named with a single word" - "Name with a descriptive title") + "Named with a descriptive title") (list "Has no content or properties of its own" - "Has its own content and properties") + "Has its own written content, and properties such as nouns, ordering, etc.") (list "Broad in scope, few in number" "Narrow in scope, many in number") (list "Selected to be relevant for use across the entire lifetime of the site" "Selected without reference to future creative direction; may be closed after only a few articles"))]