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Nota is a language for writing documents, like academic papers and blog posts

nota-lang.org

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Re: Nota is a language for writing documents, like academic papers and blog posts

#31

Post by DistractionRect »

esafak wrote: post #23
DistractionRect wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I actually don't agree with this. I think _not_ having "essential dynamism" where it's not needed is actually a feature, not a bug. I couldn't agree more. Dynamism is great for web _apps_, but it's the last thing I want in a document

Do you object to the interactive Vega widget? https://nota-lang.org/reference.html#def-section-1.1 Reputable scientific journals now post videos online alongside their articles. Interactivity is even better for understanding. But permanence is an issue I suppose.

I'm not saying it's all bad. Digital augmentation can be handy (love the hell out of document search), but honestly their examples aren't compelling.

I think accessibility is a major issue, where the text doesn't make as much sense without the interactive bits, and often the text itself isn't substantial enough to be stand alone.

But also, it's starting to cross the line between web app and document. I can print out a pdf and I just lose peripheral QoL benefits like document search. However, if I try to print a web app I usually lose a lot of the content/context.

Edit: as far as supplemental material goes, I'm all for it. People learn differently, so video, audio, web app, whatever are all great supplemental materials, but a good document should be able to stand by itself.

Re: Nota is a language for writing documents, like academic papers and blog posts

#32

Post by nsagent »

maple3142 wrote: post #30
jxf wrote: post #4

> There are two main mediums for digital documents: PDFs and web pages. PDFs were designed to mirror physical documents, so they impose the real-world constraints of paper: page breaks, fixed width, and immutable styling. Web pages, by contrast, provides an essential dynamism. Web pages are undeniably the future of digital documents. I actually don't agree with this. I think _not_ having "essential dynamism" where it…

I think some basic dynamism is still necessary to make reading pdf on small screens comfortable (e.g. mobile). When on mobile, I vastly prefer reading webpages over pdf because most reasonable webpage should be able to fit mobile screen.

Sadly, if you have an iPhone I don't think you can easily read Nota docs currently. The article that introduces Nota [1] has only been tested on Chrome. I tried multiple browsers on iOS to no avail (likely since they all use the same underlying rendering engine).

[1] https://willcrichton.net/nota/

Re: Nota is a language for writing documents, like academic papers and blog posts

#33

Post by queuebert »

jxf wrote: post #4

> There are two main mediums for digital documents: PDFs and web pages. PDFs were designed to mirror physical documents, so they impose the real-world constraints of paper: page breaks, fixed width, and immutable styling. Web pages, by contrast, provides an essential dynamism. Web pages are undeniably the future of digital documents. I actually don't agree with this. I think _not_ having "essential dynamism" where it…

Reminds me of https://lab6.com

Re: Nota is a language for writing documents, like academic papers and blog posts

#34

Post by DistractionRect »

anon35 wrote: post #26
DistractionRect wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I actually don't agree with this. I think _not_ having "essential dynamism" where it's not needed is actually a feature, not a bug. I couldn't agree more. Dynamism is great for web _apps_, but it's the last thing I want in a document

OK but then what is the thing in the middle, between documents and applications? There are fantastic, beautiful interactive experiences (for lack of a better word) that are obviously not documents (they can't be represented on paper, there is code running) but they're not really applications, either (they are fully offline, self-contained, state that's only evident on the page). But they are, universally: dynamic. Ex…

Ha, I was totally thinking about the watch blog too!

I think that one is rather a special case. You could print it out with the first still of each bit and probably get out 90% of the content/context, and modify document to print out a few stills from each interactive part and get the same intellectual content. In it's case, the interactivity is superfluous, it's there to spark joy. It's really an example of a document with outstanding figures/visual aid - the interactivity is just a bonus.

Similarly, the space elevator could be a picture book/pdf. The interactive bits there also spark joy.

The tenbrighterideas page mostly annoyed me. It's just bastardizing structure to be "interactive", which is to say most of the information is hidden away behind a bunch of clicks and it could have been a document, with one page dedicated to each idea.

Re: Nota is a language for writing documents, like academic papers and blog posts

#35

Post by maegul »

Can’t help but contrast it to ObservableHQ (https://observablehq.com/), which is basically front end notebooks with reactivity and other niceties. Leans right into “dynamism” while also allowing for simple document authoring.

Though it’s a platform, there’s a runtime and some open substitutes for the bits not open IIRC.

Re: Nota is a language for writing documents, like academic papers and blog posts

#36

Post by growingkittens »

jxf wrote: post #4

> There are two main mediums for digital documents: PDFs and web pages. PDFs were designed to mirror physical documents, so they impose the real-world constraints of paper: page breaks, fixed width, and immutable styling. Web pages, by contrast, provides an essential dynamism. Web pages are undeniably the future of digital documents. I actually don't agree with this. I think _not_ having "essential dynamism" where it…

PDFs constrain information by limiting the way it can be reproduced digitally. There is no such thing as "just" copy/pasting from a PDF - weird errors abound. The text has to be extensively reformatted or run through special software.

A format is needed that encodes information visually and digitally. The digital layer doesn't have to be visible by default, just accessible when needed.

Re: Nota is a language for writing documents, like academic papers and blog posts

#40

Post by wodenokoto »

jxf wrote: post #4

> There are two main mediums for digital documents: PDFs and web pages. PDFs were designed to mirror physical documents, so they impose the real-world constraints of paper: page breaks, fixed width, and immutable styling. Web pages, by contrast, provides an essential dynamism. Web pages are undeniably the future of digital documents. I actually don't agree with this. I think _not_ having "essential dynamism" where it…

So you want static margins that not even adjust to mobile?
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