This will eventually be about Processes and Data - how we use processes to interact with data.
Every time I get around to describing this, I have great trouble with the terminology. Because it is about computer software there are many different terms for the same things. There are a huge variety of languages, there are many different types of languages, there are many different ways of managing data, there are many different hardware devices. It is a bloody quagmire. So I use the terminology I prefer. Hopefully, I will describe the terminology clearly.
The trouble is, I don't really like that terminology either. So far I have not thought up the correct terminology.
If it ever gets finished, it will describe a conceptual environment in which software systems for conveniently managing any data can be built by people who are proficient in the system's application (as opposed to professional programmers). I have always known this to be possible, even inevitable. I am trying to assemble apparently random thoughts in an effort to turn them into apparently logical thoughts.
At the heart of this environment is the concept that there exist only processes and data. While the author believes that this can be applied to all things in the known universe, this wiki addresses primarily computer application systems.
Except for the very first thing, whatever that was, all things are the result of a process.
Actions are processes
Things are data
Processes act on things
Processes are transient. When you turn off the computer, all processes are stopped. (Except for the clock).
Data can live past a process' activity. When you turn off the computer, permanent data remains.
Computers do what they do because we request them to via some form of interaction.
We interact with
Data via
Processes.
Any action we perform, including conceptual action, is an action performed on Data. We are incessantly reading, reacting to, creating and altering data. Sometimes we interact directly with the computer, pointing at things,
typing something, requesting something, just reading what is displayed
(as you are now), supplying replies to requests, selecting from a list
of choices. Every command, request or reply we give is via the part of the computer which is designed to interact with us. This may be a speech system, a keyboard, a mouse, a screen, a printer or any of many users' devices. These are collectively described as the
User Interface.
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