devlog 2024-04-09, some ui, some db
Mix of things today. I did a lot of grinding on the front-end, which now has a few things added.
front end
I did a lot of UI stuff with thoughts.
Thoughts are the major way you interact with Comind. They are posts, messages, living documents, groups of thoughts, concepts, etc. I want to make sure they feel good to look at and interact with, while also allowing the thoughts to blend together without making them feel to separate.
Here's an example of the normal thought view, which kind of looks like a blog post. Note here that the thoughts are too similar, it's not clear where one thought ends and another begins. I'll keep working on that.
A view I like more is an expandable thought view that includes a text box for entry. This works now – if you type stuff in this box, you'll make a new thought and then link your new thought to the thought you're examining.
The expanded view is intended to say "hey, we are looking at this thing closely. please start showing me a lot of information about this thought". At this point, Comind should be able to show you a "flowering" of thoughts that help you understand, contextualize, and expand on the selected thought.
Is this thought related to something you agreed to do, like a task? Let's remind you of that task and highlight things you can do.
Do people agree with this thought?
Has someone called it false, or provided evidence in support?
If it is about an academic paper, what are other things to keep in mind?
Is it an email from a certain person? If so, let's tell you about recent conversations with that person.
Is the thought attached to a concept? If so, invite a comind representing that concept to comment on the thought.
It's still rough right now. If you noticed, that's a lot of information to convey, and a clean UI is one that conveys a relatively small amount of important information quickly.
db
I've been playing around with a Rust webserver that just sits directly between the database and the front-end/core backend. Database stuff is actually super simple – I don't want to keep fucking with it in the Julia backend.
I wrote some early code, but the configuration is kicking my ass. I gave up for the evening because I have to go rowing tomorrow AM and I don't want to be too grumpy.
– Cameron