AUGMENT employs explicitly structured files, with hierarchically organized nodes; each node can contain either or all of: up to 2,000 characters of text, a graphic structure, or other forms of useful data (e.g., digitized speech). The worker has a definite model in mind for the structuring of any file that he works with; in composing and modifying it he can organize and modify structure using the same verbs as for working with text strings (e.g. Insert, Replace, Move, Copy, Delete), with appropriate structural-entity nouns (e.g., Statement, Branch, Group, Plex). For any existing hierarchical structure, he has many flexible alternatives for addressing its entities, modifying its organization, jumping around within it, and viewing it in a most beneficial manner.4c1

(Note: AUGMENT workers generally use the term "statement" to refer to a file node, which is natural enough since the terminology became established before we added the graphic capability. Now an AUGMENT "statement" can contain either or both a text statement and a graphic diagram.)4c2

There are four "handles" by which a given statement may be directly addressed:6b1

Structural Statement Number. This designates the current "structural location" of the statement. It is assigned by the system, depending upon where the worker installs or moves a statement within an existing structure, or how that structure might have been re-organized subsequently. It is usually expressed as an alternating sequence of number-letter fields -- e.g. "1", "1a", "1a1", "1a2", and "1b". At a worker's option, these same statement numbers could be shown as "1", "1.1", "1.1.1", "1.1.2", or "1.2", but this bulkier alternative is seldom chosen. 6b2

Statement Identifier (or SID). This is a unique integer, assigned in sequential order by the system as each statement is first inserted, and which stays with a statement no matter how much its content may be altered or where it may be moved in its file structure. To make it uniquely recognizable for what it is, a SID is always displayed, printed, or designated with a prefixed "0" -- e.g., "012", "0417", etc. SIDs are particularly useful for referencing passages in a document while it is evolving.6b3

Worker-Assigned Statement Name (or label). For any statement or part of the file structure, an author can designate as "name delimiters" a pair of characters that indicate to the system when the first word of a statement is to be treated as a name for that statement. For instance, if "(" and ")" are set by the author as name delimiters for a specified part of the file, any parenthesized first word in a statement would be recognized by the system as that statement's name.6b4

(Note: It is optional whether to have any of the above three identifiers displayed or printed with the statements' text.)6b5

A Direct Screen Selection. When a statement to be designated is displayed in a window, usually the best way to "address" it is to use the mouse to position the cursor anywhere on the statement and depress the mouse's "Select" key (indicated below by "<Select>"). This mode is generally used for text manipulation -- selecting characters, words, numbers, visibles, invisibles, etc. (any of the text entities which have been made system recognizable).6b6

As one "holds a place" in a book by leaving a temporary place marker in it, an author can place "markers" at arbitrary locations within an AUGMENT file. When placing a marker, he attaches it to a specific character in the text and gives it a name or label. Marker names are local to each file. Simple commands provide for displaying where one's markers are located and what their names are, for deleting or moving a marker, or for installing a new one.6c1

A marker name may be included in an address expression, to provide another way of designating an address. A marker name can designate not only a particular statement, but a specific character within that statement. For example, "Copy Word #x (to follow word) <Select>" would designate that a word located somewhere in the file and marked with an "x" is to be copied to follow the cursor-selected word. There are many unique ways in which markers may be employed by an author who has integrated their artful use into her working methodology.6c2

As a comparative example of some of the foregoing addressing forms, consider a statement whose SID is "069", whose statement number is "3b5", that has statement-name delimiters designated for it as "NULL" and ":", that starts with the text "Capacity: For every ...", and that has a marker named "x" positioned on one of its characters. A command to move this statement could optionally be expressed as:6c3

A sequence of characters may be appended to the address of a given statement to specify an address of a position "relative" to that statement. A major class of these designations deals with relative structural location, such as: Up a level, Down a level, Successor at same level, Predecessor at same level, Head at this level, Tail at this level, and End statement at last and lowest position in this branch. A period (".") in the address string indicates that relative addressing is beginning, and each of these relative-location designators is indicated with a directly mnemonic, one-letter designation. 6d1

For example, "Move Statement 0609 (to follow statement) 4b.dt" would move Statement 0609 to follow the tail statement of the substructure one level down from Statement 4b -- or, to conceptualize the associated address-location pathway, "go to 4b, then Down a level and to the Tail".6d2

A special use of address expressions is within an explicit text entity that we call a "Citation Link" (or "Link" for short). Links are used as textual citations to some specific file item within the workshop domain. A link is delimited by parentheses or angle brackets and contains a valid address string whose path leads to the cited file entity. For example, "(0306)" or "(4b.dt)" are valid links. Also, the reference items at the end of this paper are statements named "Ref-1", "Ref-2", etc., and as such can be cited with links "<Ref-1>", "<Ref-2>", etc. An AUGMENT reader may travel via such a link directly to the referenced bibliographic citation.6e1

A special feature in AUGMENT's link provisions is the use of "indirect link referencing". In path-following terms, including ".l" in an address string stipulates, "scan forward from this point to the next link, and follow that link to its target." For example, to follow the path prescribed by link "(4b.l)", one would "go to 4b, then find the first link in that statement and follow the path that it specifies." This latter path in turn could prescribe use of another link, etc. There is no intrinsic limit to the number of these indirect links that may be employed in a given path -- only a natural caution against such a path looping back upon itself.6e2

As an example, note that "<Ref-1>" is a link to the statement named "Ref-1", a bibliographic citation at the end of this paper. In that citation, there is a link to the original source document of the referenced publication, permanently stored in the AUGMENT Journal as Item 71279 (the Journal is described below). The point to be made here is that with the link "<Ref-1.l>", I can reference the original source document -- and a Jump Link command would "take me there."6e3

Other addressing options include scanning for a content match, and/or stepping backward and forward a given number of characters or words (or other text entities). For instance, the foregoing link could have involved a bit more smarts in designating which link to follow: e.g., the path for '(4b "*D" .l)' would be "to 4b, scan for first occurrence of "*D", then follow the next link found in that statement." 6f1

By preceding an in-file address string with a file address, and separating the two strings with a comma, one obtains a composite address designating a given entity within a given file. Extending this principle lets one prefix the file name with a directory name in which the file is to be found; and further, one can prefix this with a host-computer name.6g1

For example, '(Office-5, Program-Documentation, Sequence-Doc, Specifications "Journal")' specifies the path: to the Office-5 host computer, to its Program-Documentation file directory, to its Sequence-Doc file, to its statement named "Specifications", and then scan to the location of the text "Journal".6g2

If a person were working on the Office-5 host, he would only have to specify '(Program-Documentation, Sequence-Doc, Specifications "Journal")'. If he were already working within a file with its "link default" set to the Program-Documentation directory, he would only have to specify '(Sequence-Doc, Specifications "Journal")'. And if he were already working within the Sequence-Doc file, he would only have to specify '(Specifications "Journal")'. And if he were planning to reference items relative to the Statement named "Specifications" very often, he could affix a marker (e.g., named "s") to its front and would then only have to specify '(#s "Journal")'. 6g3

Or, suppose he were working in another file in a different directory on Office-5 and wanted to reference items relative to that same "far off" statement with special ease: in some temporary place in that file he could install a statement named "Ref" (for example) containing the textual link, "(Program-Documentation, Sequence-Doc, Specifications)". He could then cite the above reference with the link, '(Ref.l "Journal")'. This path description is: go to the statement in this file named "Ref", take the first link that you find there (traveling across intervening directories and files and statements), and beginning in the statement on the other end of that link, scan forward to the string "Journal". 6g4

For whatever total screen area is available to the worker, his general performance will be improved significantly if he can flexibly allocate that area into arbitrary-sized windows whose contents can be independently controlled. AUGMENT has long provided this basic capability, along with the provision that material from any accessible file may be shown in any window, and also that screen-select copying or moving can be done across the different windows.7b1

(Note: Cross-file editing can be done at any time, between any two legally accessible files. If one or the other file's material or destination is not being displayed in any of the windows, one may always opt to employ a textual address expression instead of a <Select> within any editing command.)7b2

User-adjustable parameters are used to control the view presented on the display. Adjusting one's view parameters is a constantly used AUGMENT feature that has solidly proved its value. To facilitate their quick and flexible use, the view-specification actions evolved into cryptic, single-character codes, called "viewspecs." The syntax of all Jump commands (used for traveling) includes the option of designating new viewspecs, and a special combination of mouse buttons enables quick, concurrent, keyset action to change the viewspecs for a given window. Here are a few of the frequently used view controls:7b3

Structure Cutoff. Show only the statements that lie "below" this statement in the structure (i.e., this "branch"); or show only those following statements that are at this level or deeper; or show all of the following statements that will fit in this window.7c1

Level Clipping. For the designated structure cutoff, show only the statements down to a specified level. Lower-level statements are "clipped" from the view; the worker can thus view just a selected number of the upper levels of his document/file.7c2

Statement Truncation. For those statements brought into view (as selected by other view specifications), show only their first n lines. Truncation to one line is often used, along with level clipping, in order to get an effective overview.7c3

Inter-Statement Separation. For viewing ease -- blank lines can be optionally installed between statements.7c4

(Note: The foregoing view controls are extremely helpful when studying and modifying a document's structural organization.)7c5

Statement Numbers and Names. Optionally, for a given window, show the Statement Number (or the SID) of each statement -- with an option for showing them at either the right or at the left margin. Independently, the showing of statement names may be turned on or off.7c6

Frozen Statements. A worker may select a number of statements, in random order, and designate them as "frozen." One of the view-specification options is to have the frozen statements appear at the top of the frame, with the rest of that window left for normal viewing and editing. The frozen statements may be edited, or even cross-edited between any other displayed (or addressable) statements.7c7

User-Specified Content Filters. A simple content-analysis language may be used in a "Set Content Pattern" command, which compiles a little content-checking program. One of the view-specification options will cause the system to display only those statements which satisfy both the structure and level conditions imposed by other viewspecs, and which also pass the content-analysis test applied by this program. Where desired, very sophisticated content-analysis programs may be written, using a full-blown programming language, and placed on call for any user.7c8

In the foregoing, a "view" is created by beginning at a designated location in a document (file) and selecting certain of the the "following" statements for display, according to the viewing parameters -- possibly suppressing statements that don't pass the test of a content-analysis program. This is essentially a "parameterized sequence generator," and provides very useful options for selectively viewing statements within a document; however, it works only by selectively discarding statements from a sequence provided in standard order.7d1

Application programmers can provide alternate sequence-generator programs, which any user can invoke in a straightforward manner. In such a case, the apparent structure being presented to the user could be generated from a sequence of candidate statements according to any rules one may invent -- and the actual views could be further controlled by the above-described viewspecs for level clipping, truncation, content filtering, etc.7d2

Perhaps the most commonly used, special sequence generator is one that provides an "Include" feature, where specially tagged links embedded in the text will cause their cited passages to be "included" in place of the Include-Link statements, as though they were part of this file. This provision enables arbitrary assemblage of text and formatting directives, from a wide collection of files, to represent a virtual, one-document, super file. For instance, the whole assemblage could be passed to the formatter, by means of a single user action, to generate a composite, photo-typeset document.7d3

Keyset hand strikes "m" and "b" (for Move Branch), while the mouse hand is positioning the cursor anywhere in the text line of Statement 2b. [Two chord strokes.]9d1

The mouse hand depresses the <Select> button on the mouse while the cursor is on Statement 2b, then moves to Statement 3c and depresses it again, and then depresses it again to say, "OK, do it." [Three button pushes, synchronized with the mouse movement as it made two selections on easy, window-wide, whole-line targets.]9d2

AUGMENT's mail system allows one to "send" complete, structured documents as well as small messages. In an authorship environment, an important role for "electronic mail" is for the control and distribution of documents -- where small, throw-away messages are considered to be but a special class of document. An author should be able to bundle up any combination of text and graphics, in the forms that he has been using for studying and manipulating them -- and send the bundle to other workers. In AUGMENT, such a bundle is just like any other file structure, and can be studied and manipulated, incorporated into other files (documents), saved or deleted.10b1

A given journal may be set up to serve multiple hosts and is much like a special library. It has its collection of documents, and AUGMENT provides associated support processes for entry, cataloging, retrieval, and access.10c1

Together with the linking capability described above, a Journal system provides an extremely effective form of "recorded dialog." Cross-reference links between a succession of Journal items produces an inter-linked network of collaborative contributions -- plans, outlines, document drafts, schedules, short comments, detailed critiques, reference material, etc. The on-line worker can follow these links very easily and, using multiple windows and flexible viewing options, can make very effective use of such records.10c2

For instance, consider a detailed commentary directed toward a "preliminary design" document recorded in a given Journal collection. The author writing the commentary could view the design document in one window and his developing commentary document in another. He can easily establish links in his commentary to cite any passage in the design document -- e.g., a statement, a term in the statement, or a diagram. Then this author would submit his commentary into the Journal, perhaps specifying a list of colleagues for "distribution." Each listed user would automatically receive a mail item announcing this new Journal entry, giving subject, author, date, etc., and the all-important link to the new Journal file containing the commentary. Any such recipient can subsequently study both the commentary and its cited planning document in a similar, multi-window, link-assisted manner.10c3

Furthermore, this second reader could develop and submit his own recorded commentary, which because of the citation power of AUGMENT links could be as short and to the point as: "Frankly, John, I think your comment in (DDD,xxx,aa) is a mistake! Didn't you notice the earlier assumption in (DDD,xxx,bb)? Maybe you should go back to Tom's earlier requirements document -- especially at (EEE,yy,cc)." (Here, "DDD" and "EEE" represent Journal names, "xxx", "yyy", and "zzz" represent Journal item numbers, and "aa", "bb", and "cc" represent addresses pointing to specific passages in those Journal files.)10c4

In official parlance, "retrieval" is the finding out about the existence of a relevant piece of information, whereas "access" is the subsequent process of gaining possession of the information. For users of AUGMENT's Journal system, retrieval is immensely facilitated by the widespread use of citation links. When one can follow them as easily as can a practiced AUGMENT worker, these links provide extremely effective retrieval support. We have supplemented this with some simple, automatically generated catalog files, which made a rather nice balance. Access is provided by direct Jump on a reference link if the file is on line; if it isn't, AUGMENT asks the worker if she wants it retrieved, and a simple affirmative response automatically launches a request for the system operator to retrieve the file from its archive tape, after which the worker is notified of its availability via electronic mail.10c5

A private document can be submitted into a Journal. In this case, only those workers listed at Journal-entry time can get access to the central copy. Such a private item would not be listed or indexed in the "public" catalogs.10c6

We have used the Journal system very heavily since 1970 to support AUGMENT's development activity; many customers have employed it heavily since 1975. There are about 100,000 entries recorded in the original Journal now (I don't know about other, newer AUGMENT Journal collections). We found that as workers became at home in this environment, they were increasingly free about submitting their items to the "public." It became evident that the scientific tradition of active and open interchange has some solid relevance to the collaborative processes in our smaller, "colleague communities." Time and again a worker would come across others' dialog and be able to contribute some valuable information (sometimes a one-sentence comment with a critical citation link). Often the payoff went the other way: the new party found immediate value in an old piece of recorded dialog.10c7

Suppose that two workers, Smith and Jones, want to set up and operate in a Shared-Screen Conferencing mode. Smith is in Princeton, working on host Office-4, and Jones is in San Francisco, working on host Office-12 -- and both of these host computers are connected to the same network. Assumedly they are in telephone contact when they decide to work in this shared-screen mode to collaborate on Smith's current job.10d1

Jones will enter the command "Share (display with user) SMITH! On host OF12! Viewing (other display)!!"10d2

Smith will enter the command "Share (display with user) JONES! On host OF4! Showing (this display)!!"10d3

To give these commands, each person only entered the characters shown in upper case (entry case actually irrelevant), plus the digits, plus an "OK Key" action where each exclamation point is shown.10d4

Whatever tool that Jones is currently using will continue responding to his controlling actions, as evidenced by various feedback and portrayal actions in the windows on his screen. Smith's screen image will clear, and be replaced with a replica of Jones' screen image -- multiple windows and all. For the duration of the shared-screen session, Smith's screen image will continue to replicate what is shown on Jones' screen. 10d5

There are provisions for passing control back and forth between workers. For instance, Jones can pass control to Smith so that Smith can show him some material or method of work. There are also provisions for the subsequent entry and departure of other conference participants.10d6