My ideas about possible MaxThink-mode
Pá 20 září 2002
(This is a very old draft of a paper I have sent to RMS asking for his feedback on extension of the Emacs’s outline-mode to support what I remembered from MaxThink by Neil Larsen; org-mode didn’t exist yet, and not long after that I have met VimOutliner anyway).
First of all, when I have contemplated about this report on MaxThink, I have came to conclusion, that just remodelling of Outline-mode probably shall not be enough (I am not a programmer, so I may be wrong). For example, I guess that some special (certainly text-based) data format should be invented. Tree with around hundred levels would be very inefficiently saved when every level would begin with hundred of asterisks.
Another substantial difference (IMHO) is that in Outline-mode branches are deemed to be just headlines and majority of text is supposed to be body text (aka leaf). On the other hand, there is nothing like body text in MaxThink, only leaves and each leaf can have a subtree (for the sake simplicity I do not make in this document a difference between individual leaves and subtrees -- each leaf is possible subtree, maybe with none children). Another idea is that leaves tends to be very short for better movement and processing (just couple of lines, maybe paragraphs when it is a quotation or like).
Basics
Fast movement
The very idea of Mr. Larsen (author of MaxThink) is that browsing through any set of data should be as fast as possible given the intuitive memory (or what's the name) expires in some two seconds or so. Therefore, in order to make really intuitive knowledge base, you need to be able to browse it fast. I mean, really fast.
Therefore, his MaxThink (as well as his other program, Houdini, for making hyperlinked knowledge networks—but, it seems to me to be much less useful than MaxThink) uses modal design. In browsing mode you need only arrow keys (no Ctrl-, Alt-, or anything else). When your cursor is on the proper leaf of the tree, just press [TAB] and you are in very simple editor for the particular leaf (with wrapping, but otherwise, just plain text). Out of this mode you get either by [ESC] or by making other leaf (see below for description of hotkeys F7-10).
Certainly, I suppose that maxthink-mode (or whatever will be its name) shall follow EMACS standards of user-interface, but it is necessary to keep speed of browsing and simplicity. In the further text I shall describe MaxThink as it functions now.
View
There is only limited number of levels on the screen in a given moment (you can change it while browsing by Ctrl-[<-] amd Ctrl-[->] for collapsing or expansion), so when you switch to any deeper /higher level, whole view shifts so that parent of actual level is on the top of the screen and as many of its children as fits to the screen below (slightly intended and numbered).
Every leaf in the whole tree has its address based on the decimal numbering of leaves (top leaf is 0; the first level leafs are 0.1, 0.2, etc.; the second level leaves are 0.1.1, 0.1.2, 0.2.3, etc.). Relative addresses and addressing of group of leaves are both possible. Whenever possible user can select item by arrow keys movement, rather than by just typing address(es), which is also always possible.
Certainly, there is unlimited depth of the tree (or very high, I have never seen a tree deeper than 100 levels), so that asterisks (as in current Outline mode) are certainly not satisfactory solution and some more advanced one should be found (e.g., whole actual address of the actual leaf may be shown on a mode-line and leaves on one level should be numbered by ordinary numbers or in Chicago-manual-of-Style-outline-numbering style; A.I.1.a. etc.).
There are also some kind of bookmarks available (similar to ones in Netscape or any other www browser) and symlinks (where a leaf is just a mirror-image of another one).
Inserting new leaf
While the cursor is on a leaf you can press couple of hotkeys to create new leafs (F10 for sibling below the actual leaf, F9 one above, F8 is for child, and F7 for brother of parent below the parent's leaf). The same options are available from a menu, but hardly used by myself.
Any number of leaves can be selected and copied/moved/deleted etc. to make parents/siblings/children of target leaf.
Advanced functions
What makes MaxThink something more than just powerful outliner are advanced functions for fast and mighty reorganization of tree. Sorting is obvious (on selected leaves or all on the given level of current subtree). Dividing/joining of actual leaf (or selected leaves) by words/lines/paragraphs is self-describing. Other simple option is randomizing given leafs on one level (sometimes, when you cannot find a solution in given order, it helps to mess things and start afresh).
There is also computer aided binsorting (i.e., putting things in different bins, no relation with a type of sorting algorythm). Try to imagine, that you have couple of hundred leaves long list to be organized in separate categories. You can use cut/paste method but it is too slow. You can also, create couple of new leaves in the top of the list and mark them as bins. Than you start the function BINSORT and you are asked in sequence for position of each leaf (remember, categories as well as any leaf in MaxThink are numbered so one tick on keyboard is enough to say which category is the one, if there is only up to nine of them; but you can use arrow keys as well), then it is moved to so created category (i.e., subtree). I have binsorted five hundred topics in beautiful outline in a hour. Try it with plain cutting and pasting.
Another function is simple. It's called LOCK and you just staple a current leaf (or subtree under current leaf) to your cursor and moves with it until you find the best position for it and let it be there (by [ESC]).
There is also a function called GATHER. When you switch it on, you can pick leaves up while browsing in some temporary memory and than throw them in some new place (either with move or copy).
Another function is called PRIORITIZE (isn't it beautifuly bureaucratic word! :-). It is based on presumption, that it is much more simple to find one most important thing in the given list of items, than to sort them. So, this very simple function asks you which of items from the list is the most important one (BTW, every function has usually some sensible defaults—in this case list of all items on the current level of current subtree). Then it hides your pick and asks you again, ... until the list is sorted. Incredibly simple and stupid, but very efficient (especially with huge lists, which are really difficult to organize).
Sometimes it is usefull to mark some items on huge list (here MaxThink makes things simple by just inserting ten equal signs) and recreate an outline by one operation where all non-marked leaves are subtopics of makred leave directly precedent (these equal signs are of course deleted when non-needed). Inverse function is available as well.
Some funny things
There are some other things as well. Additional program makes a tree from any directory and its subdirectories on your harddrive, so you can analyze it with MaxThink. You can add by a hotkey date/time while editing a leaf. Program is able to divide whole tree while printing on more sheets of paper, so you can setup (e.g., in your local gym) with a tree of any size. Tree can be exported to some wordprocessors (MaxThinks has export to WordPerfect and M$-Word, but in a free world it just cries for export to LaTeX).