Display your typing and editing

February 13, 2007 4:11 AM

dlog is a new document visualization system that attempts to show writing not as a static document but a progression of frames over time. I find the suspense of the process mesmerising/delightful. I'm surprised it hasn't been trashed.
posted by tellurian (30 comments total)

I created a file earlier with the intention of posting it as a comment but have no idea how to link to it or how the whole thing works at all actually.
posted by tellurian at 4:37 AM on February 13, 2007

A site that re-directs me to a software vendor because the writer disapproves of my choice of browser is not one that I want to see. I do actually have Firefox installed - though I wasn't using it at the time - but will not be trying again.
posted by No Mutant Enemy at 4:38 AM on February 13, 2007

You get 10 points for discovering the site but lose 3 for not figuring out how to link to your dlog entry.
posted by DU at 4:40 AM on February 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

DU - you tease. 3 points back, please
posted by tellurian at 4:50 AM on February 13, 2007

DU - you lose 7 points for not making your comment a dlog entry. Trade?
posted by tellurian at 4:56 AM on February 13, 2007

Since I can't think of an hilarious dlog gag that will endear me to my public and win my points back (not to mention the girl's hand in the last scene), deal.
posted by DU at 5:04 AM on February 13, 2007

Read "Dear Jane." Its not autobiographical, mind you.
posted by LMGM at 5:08 AM on February 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Duh. Forgot the link. No spankings, please.
posted by LMGM at 5:10 AM on February 13, 2007 [6 favorites]

Wait a minute--did my link to tellurian's entry work? I emailed one to someone and they said it just said "Loading....". The link Works For Me.

Ah well, I guess this is what you get with Web 2.5beta1
posted by DU at 5:16 AM on February 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

LMGM - I had tears as I watched that unfold {brilliant, bravo}
It really does add another dimension to see the revisions.
posted by tellurian at 5:21 AM on February 13, 2007

Thanks! I tried to think of something to follow it up, but now my brain is stuck in "awkward letter with bad news" drive. I'm sure Dlog is worth more than a single plot archetype.

I will not rest from wasting my working day until I think of something better!
posted by LMGM at 5:26 AM on February 13, 2007

I emailed one to someone and they said it just said "Loading....". The link Works For Me.
DU - not so smartypants linker now? [your link of mine and LMGM's link worked for me - pity, poor, No Mutant Enemy]. How does this thing work? This exchange makes no sense out of context.
posted by tellurian at 5:31 AM on February 13, 2007

A site that re-directs me to a software vendor because the writer disapproves of my choice of browser is not one that I want to see.

Um, yeah. WTF.
posted by dreamsign at 5:42 AM on February 13, 2007

Apparently, it loads rather slowly on Safari at times, so that might be it. Mind you, tellurian's and my thingy are both pretty short, so it's not a "slow" issue, so much as a "stupid thing is broke" thing.

It would be a lot of fun to integrate this technology into commenting on the blue here. Would love to see what people delete/modify before hitting "post."
posted by LMGM at 5:42 AM on February 13, 2007

LMGM: That was hilarious. Well played, good sir!
posted by Mach5 at 5:48 AM on February 13, 2007

Great work LMGM.
Intrigued by the comments about redirect, I used the user agent switcher and it's true! But I was using Firefox all the time! Take that, dlog person!
posted by Abiezer at 5:48 AM on February 13, 2007

300 baud is the new broadband.
posted by gwint at 5:57 AM on February 13, 2007

What No Mutant Enemy and dreamsign said. I'll go back though, but with an attitude...
posted by sfts2 at 6:45 AM on February 13, 2007

as a web developer, I completely understand why it would redirect you to firefox. Unless this guy is planning on making money off dlog, its really hard to buckle down and force yourself to make something play nice with IE when you're making it out of the kindness of your heart in the first place.

Beyond that, it may not even be possible to program in IE. For one little toy/app I made, the IE engine wasn't nimble enough to play along.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 6:51 AM on February 13, 2007

It would be a lot of fun to integrate this technology into commenting on the blue here. Would love to see what people delete/modify before hitting "post."

A frightening peek into the void!

Surprises me that they chose to keep the recording real time rather than timing it to raw keystrokes. I think it's better from a performative perspective—more expressive, if you use it right—but in unrehearsed first encounters it leads to odd pauses.
posted by cortex at 7:03 AM on February 13, 2007

Beyond that, it may not even be possible to program in IE. For one little toy/app I made, the IE engine wasn't nimble enough to play along.

As someone who manages a web development group for a fairly large web site, I can agree with your statement if it was something like 'I couldn't justify spending the time or I couldn't figure out how to make it do what I was trying to do' Also, your point is somewhat irrelevant if you read the message dialog. Firefox fandom is really tedious. We develop for both IE and other browsers, each has their quirks and problems. Firefox crashes, IE doesn't in my experience. Safari crashes often on my Mac. If your stuff doesn't work on IE, say so and don't prostheletize.

Sorry for the derail though, it was a cool concept and it would be fun to see on MeFi.
posted by sfts2 at 7:14 AM on February 13, 2007

And now, at work sans FF, I am feeling the redirect pain. That's a damned obnoxious way of handling it, even if they can't support IE.
posted by cortex at 7:55 AM on February 13, 2007

Yeah, I think that's what rankled, cortex, not the redirect itself.
posted by dreamsign at 8:37 AM on February 13, 2007

me: It would be a lot of fun to integrate this technology into commenting on the blue here. Would love to see what people delete/modify before hitting "post."

cortex: A frightening peek into the void!

Allow me to clarify...
posted by LMGM at 9:01 AM on February 13, 2007

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Alll work and noplay makes Jack a dull bpoy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull bnoy.

posted by arto at 10:03 AM on February 13, 2007

It's like the ^H^H^H of Web 2.0.
posted by smackfu at 10:58 AM on February 13, 2007

Yeah, I think that's what rankled, cortex, not the redirect itself.

Absolutely. I would accept - even be happy with - something like "This site does not support MSIE because that browser does not conform to the W3C standards for blah, blah". The message I got was "M$ suxxorz so I'm not interested in you."
posted by No Mutant Enemy at 4:33 AM on February 14, 2007

Well, at least it reminded me that I was done pretending to be using IE for Netflix's sake. Other than that, what exactly is the purpose of this? I already know how I type. I already know when I make mistakes, and how to correct them. Can somebody tell me why this was created?
posted by etoile at 2:45 PM on February 15, 2007

Can somebody tell me why this was created?

To expose the act of editing-as-writing and make visible the ways in which we create a static work from a necessarily temporal process of input. Or something like that. It can be interesting to examine the details we usually ignore, and the mechanical question of how-we-edit is a good example of that.
posted by cortex at 3:08 PM on February 15, 2007

Can somebody tell me why this was created?

The author emailed me: "It's basically for me and my friends anyway. In theory, I'll get back to developing the system at some point, but for now, I'm more interested in using it for my own writing. The obvious application of this is to write a little time-linear piece that changes intentionally- basically hypertext poetry. But I'm more excited about capturing the true writing process, even though the awareness that it's being logged must change something."
posted by tellurian at 8:42 AM on February 16, 2007