Special Character Prefix Association

Prefixes can help in markup of wiki pages to extend FreeLinking and "the other things" ThinkingOutLoud.DonaldNoyes 20111213 20120417

A notion that might be added to any WikiServerEngine to treat SpecialCharacterPrefixAssociation notations:

Use a leading special character like a backtic ` , or ~, ? , | , @, ^, or other minimally visible character, followed by a twodigit numeric representing the number of space-delimited words following it to serve as the link.
- single word would be something like
  - `01 single
  - `01 single-word ( - treated like another character instead of a delimiter)
  - `01 ugly
  - `01 USA
  - 01`WikiWord ( to accomodate the convention used in most wikis of a CamelCase word )
- two or more words as link, shown like
  - `02 wiki word
  - `02 extreme programming
  - `02 free link
  - `04 once and only once
  - `02 CategoryName? Wiki
  - `06 be sure to check your spelling
  - `07 technique to simplify both markup and programming
when using the leading ~
- it might represent an external link requiring internet connection
- or as a link which represents a special case or type of link
when using any other of the special characters ( @ # $ % ^ & * | ) as the leading character - the effect is to associate as an artifact, the number of space delimited words following the two-digit number to be treated as types or cases of links or signifying processes other than linking.
- thoughts on using % ( to treat a case listed earlier in the page )
  - the case - [["Robert Anton Wilson" "author"]] would appear as the link "author" would appear in markup as %03 Robert Anton Wilson | `01 author
    - the representation following the vertical bar need not be '01 author - you could use any of the programmed notions ( '04 Robert A. Wilson, author )

In a WikiEngine utilizing these "Special" characters (those not usually used in words) and in a certain case as shown above they tell the process:

a link or process follows the number of words, or space-delimited constructs understood by the engine as words to be taken and treated ( ItDepends ) as:
- linkages
- operations
- pointers, or
- references

Each of the special character in the collection is a token identifier

Context of illustration - A Server which serves WikiLikePages to a HumanReader? via a Document-Producting application (Browser, PortableDocumentDisplay?, Image Display, Multi-media Presenter)
the Bactick [ ` ]
- a link to a page in the page space follows
  - as in above where '02 free link is the link
    - which when clicking upon it takes on to the page "free link"
the PercentSign? [ % ]
- useful in the context phrase, sentence or paragraph in specifying a particular member of the collection
  - as in above where in the text the word "author" represents the particular author "Robert Anton Wilson".
    - in this case while browsing and a mouse over the word brings up the name in a tool-tip like display, and a click takes one to the page for "Robert Anton Wilson"
the QuestionMark [ ? ]
- an indicator of a link which is not reachable, either because the resource to serve it is not available, or it does not exist
  - a few cases where this might happen
    - when the link is an internet page and one is not connected to it
    - when the link is not reachable (similar to the 404 error) due to the site being down, or the page no longer existing, or has been relocated without redirection this also occurs when the page is one of the WantedPages, not existing but planned or hoped for
      - this automates the forward referencing and does not rely on a human tagging with (BrokenLink)
the PoundSign? [ # ]
- as a provision for the engine which references and links to explanations, descriptions, specifications, definitions (as in dictionary or thesaurus)
  - mouse over indicates what is available and a click takes one to it.
the AtSymbol? [ @ ]
- an indicator that a linked portion of text from another page or document is to be included in the displayed document at the place of the marking, or displayed in a native-environment and its process, in a separate-window
  - @03 page-reference, starting-mark, ending-mark / or-length
  - @02 page-reference, named-segment
  - @02 Microsoft-Word Name-Of-Document
  - @03 Microsoft-Internet-Explorer Locale Name-Of-Document
  - @03 Microsoft-Excel Locale Name-Of-Spreadsheet
  - @03 Microsoft-Access Locale Name-Of-Database
  - @02 NoteProgram? NameOfNote?
  - @02 NoteProgram? DateOfNotes?
  - @03 NoteProgramSearch? SearchText? NameOfResultFile?
  - @03 Skype Contact-Or-GroupName? InstantMessageDate? / or SearchWord?
  - @03 LinkedSpaceAndPageEditor? topic-space page-name
  - @02 WikiBatics Document-name
  - @02 MediaProgram? Sound-File-Name / or Sound-File-Number
  - @02 MediaProgram? Sound-Playlist

This above is illustrative of how a person might construct via the SpecialCharacterPrefixAssociation a powerful, personally managed Information System

The purpose of association is

to make mark-up by the skilled or unskilled to reside in a flat-text environment
an attempt to make production of linking documents easier and much more readable

Where special non-flat-text constructs are useful

the markup references and accesses the factory that best handles presentation:
- spreadsheets
- databases
- image-viewers
- multi-media presentations
- online documents or processes
- blog or social-media
- WikiBatic? Document
- PersonalInformationManager
- etc.

This notion makes the programming effort one of counting, rather than that pattern matching, and the extensibility option of using more than one SpecialCharacterPrefixAssociation in your markup. ("the other things") -- DonaldNoyes

See: DiscussionSpecialCharacterPrefixAssociation

CategoryWiki