MonDoc logo
"Rolling stones gather no moss"

Radu Luchian(ov): Projects: CHI
MonDoc

This is a large page, so it needs an inner navigation bar :)
[What is MonDoc] [Story] [Uses for MonDoc] [What it does] [Version Info] [Similar tools]

A summary of some names relevant here:

Let's break down the MonDoc name, for context:
Mon: "my" in French.
Doc: Everything is a document. In French as well :)
- Mondoc already has its MVP.
However, so far, I've been editing the data bits manually.
- The editor that can make MonDoc really useful is Monade.
- The theoretical basis for MonDoc has its own page.

If you're interested in developing around MonDoc, see my freeware page and consider joining the MonDoc support list on SourceForge. There you can ask questions, check FAQ files, etc. The winter term of 2003 I had planned to continue working on a formal system design for the Mondoc engine.

What is MonDoc?

In short, the MonDoc engine is a CMS that uses a simulated object-oriented database system to render content within templates and templates within the functionality needed to make a document or application work. I use it as the engine behind many of my fast-prototyping tools (see my list of current projects). But that's only the surface: one possible application (and a really useful one at that).

MonDoc is in fact a project in which I bring together my research in Cognitive Science, CHI and Internet technologies. By bending out of shape Marr's three-level hypothesis, MonDoc has:

!! Examples !! | active documents | implementation | system? | editor? | language? | size | freeware | quick introduction | the post-it analogy.

Why use MonDoc?

Because it allows a more cognitively accessible communication of thought and a more efficient storage method than any other tool presently available (if someone thinks this is incorrect, please tell me of other similar existing tools; I would be glad to include here references to them). Check out more reasons. Audience.

What it does

The MonDoc engine is mainly used for generating and maintaining active-data documents (smart or intelligent user-oriented documents.)

At the heart of the engine lays an object (MonDoc, of course :) which handles context-sensitive recursive hypertext. Every aspect of a given document (including the engine itself), can be modified through the interface available as an instance of the editor-functionality sub-document which I call Monade.

This engine is in fact a simple recursive processor for a MDDL I'm developing. While designing the current tokens and syntax for this MDDL, I tried to balance simplicity and conciseness with readability and expressive power. I hope that after using each token a couple of times, programmers will have no problem writing MonDoc manually, in the textarea-based text editor - or even in their preferred external text editor. For the people who'll find it difficult to do that, there's always the form-based tag filler of one of the Monades.

Here are some of the MonDoc engine benefits.

To Do:
- finish client-side form-based editor,
- implement Search through linear format,
- create linearizers to html, pdf, XML, including meta-data described in OAI-PMH

Stay tuned or let me know any suggestions, funding or encouragement at radu@monicsoft.net

Similar available tools
(thanks go to Dick Dillon, Warren Thorngate and Franz Oppacher for extra input on these)

Hypertext

Structured data editing

  • link outXML (meta-data modeling language) comment

    • Fast (Web) Prototyping

    Assisted Learning Web Development



    [ Current Projects ][ Portfolio ][ Pastime ][ Pseudonyms ][ CV ]