Generic Actions

The ability to create webs of information from nodes and links between nodes is an inherent property of hypertext. Facilities to add, modify, and delete nodes and links can be considered as generic actions. That is, though these actions have a common meaning, their execution depends on the kind of object they act on. For example, deletion of a proposition node must delete all associative and speculative links to and from it. Similarly, deletion of an elaborative link must delete the footnote (a detail node) related to another detail node. Thus, the delete operation must behave differently based on whether the object is a node or a link. Similarly, a search operation can behave differently for different kinds of objects. Generic actions can also include the ability to create, edit, duplicate, or delete templates. Duplication of a template involves creating empty documents or nodes and the links or link sets associated with them.