AINTscience - Online User Guide
The egg
This chapter is about creating and maintaining AINTscience. It is especially about labeling, which is the act of good name creation for file directories and files. The chapter is useful for all users, but is only an introduction to the topics. System administrators and directory owners should also read the reference manual, where these topics are described in more detail.
Creation of an AINTscience filesystem is a task reserved for the company's CEA (the Chief Editor of AINTscience). There should only be one such person in a company, preferably a systematic and diplomatic personality equipped with corporate omnipotence to be applied when people don't want enlightenment or refuse to accept necessary compromise.
AINTscience file systems are built through a combination of C and E, which stand for Creation and Evolution, and not Chicken and Egg. Unlike chicken and egg, religion and atheism, there is no controversy and no battles: creation comes first, and evolution takes over.
If a company filesystem of business documents already exists, the structure of the existing system should be analyzed and possibly converted into a new system.
If no system exists, starting from scratch can be done by adapting a standard template to the company's needs. A very simple template is found in the reference manual.
The company CEA should appoint sub-editors responsible for the various main directories, and engage these in the creation process.
The evolution process starts immediately when the AINTscience filesystem is up and running. It consists of two parts:
It is critical for the evolution of an AINTscience filesystem that the directory editors are committed to the process and regularly do mAintenance. Without mAintenance, an AINTscience filesystem will start to fill up with lots of files in some directories, and it will take more and more time to find files in these directories.
Most people think that, ideally, documentation is unnecessary. This is because most people don't like to read documentation, and even fewer people like to write it. However, documentation is crucial to most complex systems, and a filesystem can be very complex.
The documentation itself doesn't have to be complex, though. A single page explaining the main directories, particularly on the function level, is often enough. It can prevent a lot of wasted effort.
In the landscape of business file systems, allowing anyone to create new directories and labels means arming everyone with weapons of class destruction. This may sound appealing if for example AINTscience's class rule is unacceptable, e.g. for linguistic-ideological reasons, but the rest of us need to wage a war on error. And you don't have to take any president's word for it, there is compelling evidence of errorism everywhere.
However, errorism is usually not organized and only becomes a problem when a filesystem is left to grow unchecked. Errorism is a bit like nature. It will gradually take over any filesystem that is not properly mAintained, but it will not attack suddenly or according to any plan.
The AINTscience way to fight errorism is regular mAintenance. This task is reserved solely for the directory editors (owners), who must strive to become wise and learned in the serene logic of AINTscience.
mAintenance requires each editor to review her own directories and look for problems, such as misunderstood labels (directory names), directories with many files, and just plain sloppiness. The most important chores are that some files will need moving, some directories will need better names, and/or improved documentation, new directories will be needed, and some files should be retired.
But even the classes and rules and wisdom of AINTscience ain't enough. Errorism will foster ugly ambiguities, redundancies, and inconsistencies, causing class destruction and rampant directory anarchy if it is not constantly held in check by employing the power of precision labeling whenever mAintenance work is going on.
Imprecise labeling causes the collateral damage that errorism feeds on, so "precision" is the name of the game.
The word "label" is actually the name of a name. An AINTscience label is not really a regular name, though, but rather a short, descriptive identification text that is affixed to something. "Precision labeling" is a label for the kind of labeling desired in an AINTscience file system.
The following quote and the picture of the Eiffel tower illustrate the power of precision labeling:
"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter -- it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning" - Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain. (Lightning bug = firefly)
On the other hand, this quote:
"To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement"
is another of Mr Clemens' beautifully worded, keen observations.
When such a celebrated wordsmith recognized the difficulties, how are we mere literary mortals to cope?
As always with AINTscience, the solution is to follow procedure, which for "precision labeling" is a set of informal guidelines.
Labels must be chosen with care and should
These guidelines are described in more detail in the reference manual, and there are also guidelines for grammar and technical conventions.
Some of the requirements for directory labels apply also to file labels, but it is not always a good idea to think of file labels as just an extension of the directory labels above the files.
Many files get copied to other directories on local computers or sent to externals, and then file labels that contain information about the content is much more useful than information free labels that have been formed from more or less random characters and act only as identifiers.
Very often, information free labels have names that are so common that they conflict with the labels of totally different files when placed in a different file system. This is bad because it forces users to create new labels, often without having sufficient knowledge of the content.
Back in the stone age of personal computers (the 1980s), file names under MS-DOS were restricted to eight characters, a dot, and a three character extension. This fostered crypticism as an art form in a century that had recently abolished telegrams, Morse code and carbon copies. Fortunately, file names can now be up to 255 characters long on most systems.
File names should therefore as a general rule be descriptive, and fairly long file names are not a problem. In particular, in a well structured file system, most of the information in the directory path of the file is relevant to the file content, and it is recommended that the most important parts of this information is reflected in the file name.
File names should
File names within any directory should preferably:
Acme_Subscription_Agreement_2007.pdf
This document may naturally be found under
Externals/Acme/Subscription/Agreement/2007,
and the name repeats most of this directory path. This makes sense because the file may be sent to someone or copied to a local PC, and there may be other related files in the same directory. Most often, though, filenames will not contain this much information about where the files belong.
In the last chapter (6), dubbed "Odds and ends" is an excerpt from the play "Peer Gynt" by Henrik Ibsen. It is a story within the story, told by Peer himself. It is recommended reading before continuing here. It is only 30 lines, and is a good story that is also useful. Click here to read it
In case you didn't read it anyway, the point of the story is: In performing for an audience, technical perfection is less important than audience perception. "Good quality" or "bad quality" is not relevant, only right or wrong quality. This also applies to an AINTscience filesystem. The concepts and the words chosen to fit the concepts must be right for the audience. If they don't fit the audience, the quality is wrong, and there is no way to get the quality right without taking the audience into account.
"Good" or "bad" is not interesting when it comes to words, right or wrong is.
The following are inspirational words to help in AINTscience creation and especially for the task of finding the right words.
The pen is mightier than the sword, and sometimes less brutal.
The mouse-button is more important than the uniform button.
The keyboard holds more powers than the board of directors.
A lame name ain't game over if you name over.
"It is never too late to give up" - Nils-Fredrik Nielsen
"Never, never, never give up" - Winston Churchill