Correspondence with Ted Nelson

Ted Nelson on PDF

To: Ted Nelson
From: Matthias Mueller-Prove <mprove@acm.org>
Subject: JFax > PDF
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999

regarding
xanadu.com.au/ted/INFUTscans/INFUT_ExplPage.html
xanadu.com.au/ted/TN/PUBS/LM/LMpage.html


Hi Ted,

after downloading, struggling with JFAX Communicator.ppc, printing, binding, reading, thinking and reasoning about all this I felt very pleased. Thank you for these books.

Last night I laid jet-lacked in my Hotel and shuffled all the chapters into 2 PDF files.
Shall I send them to you, so that you can offer another file format to the interested reader on you web site?

kind regards,
Matthias

To: Matthias Mueller-Prove <mprove@acm.org>

Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 23:30:21 -0700
From: Ted Nelson
Subject: Re: JFax > PDF

Hi.

Thanks for your effort, but I am extremely prejudiced against PDF and want nothing to do with it.

Two-dimensional simulation of paper is exactly what the computer is NOT for, in my view.

ChrzT

Ted Nelson on “Interface”

To: Ted Nelson

Date: Mon, 29 April 2000
From: Matthias Mueller-Prove <mprove@acm.org>
Subject: Re: Do I know you?

Hi Ted,

(…)

I've just started to work on my master thesis (…) : "Vison and Reality of the graphical user interface and hypertext systems." A very general approach to figure out what went wrong and how things can be fixed (or reinvented). None of us can be satisfied with the current situation of hypertext as it became popular with the advent of HTML. And the desktop metaphor does not scale very well to thousends of items. Since the refinement from Apple with MacOS nothing has really happened. Well, that's not quite right. What do you think of Kai Krause? (…)[H]e put some light to new ideas in interface design. I'd like to bring these two worlds -- hypertext and user interface -- together.

kind regards,
Matthias

From: Ted Nelson

Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 03:04:12 -0700
To: Matthias Mueller-Prove <mprove@acm.org>
Subject: :virt: Re: Do I know you?

Hi. Ah.

Well, I have some quite vigorous views on what others call "interface" and I insist is more correctly called "virtuality design". (The term "interface" is only appropriate where the function is firmly established-- like cars and printers. Everywhere else, function is in flux, and interactive design is much more than interface-- it is the design of transmissible abstractions. See my pages.

ChrzT

To: Ted Nelson

From: Matthias Mueller-Prove <mprove@acm.org>
Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 22:26:35 +0200
Subject: Re: :virt: Re: Do I know you?

Hi Ted,

that’s why I try to use "software design" instead of "interface design". The term is based on a very nice chapter from [Terry Winograd. Bringing Design to Software: Interface Design vs. Software Design].

However we call it, the entire Gestaltung of Human-Computer-Interaction covers more than only the pictures on screen. It’s realy about ideas, representations and perception -- I like your expression "transmissible abstractions".

A software designer and author forms an external representation of her ideas. A nice interface without such consistent ideas falls short. On the other side brilliant ideas without a compelling and adequate form may never reach a reader [Edward Tufte, Don Norman].

Todays interface designers have no answer how to convey large information spaces and abstract structures in a proper way. I have no easy solution, either. But I face the problem. I'll try to figure out the possibilities.

Thank you very much for our little dialog.
salú
Matthias