OpeningSystematicClassification/Bob and JF on readability

Moved from Opening systematic classification.

BobMcGuigan: Using code names for positions or patterns will inevitably lead to incomprehensibility for ordinary human readers. Just look at SGF notation, for example. I think it's no coincidence that joseki and fuseki dictionaries use the positions themselves as indexing tokens. I had a glimmer of an idea that maybe some sort of recursive system could be used so that, e.g. fuseki with white and black occupying two corners each with starpoint stones, same with san-san stones, same with shimaris, etc, would all be indexed similarly.

John F. The problem for those who feel uncomfortable with the numbering approach comes even before incomprehensibility. I don't think I've ever looked at a page whose title begins 46... or whatever. It's such a turn-off. For that reason I'm sure Bob's reminder of traditional practice is worth heeding. I just happened to be looking at how a pro, Hane Yasumasa, solved the problem for an article he did on winning percentages of fusekis (Kido Yearbook 1993, page 406). Some of his choices were surprising, and he introduced a couple of new terms (lower komoku, right-side komoku), but five pages of a six-page article were taken up with the "indexing tokens", i.e. 30 early board positions. It struck me that the same effect could have been achieved on one page if they'd used a specially compressed 9x9 "token" (or icon) board, with say the centre lines in both directions shown by a squiggle. The idea may be adapaptable for SL.

Blake: My proposal doesn't use 'code names.' It just lets you click on a board and get a variation. Something like Jago's system, actually. If the L parameter is used, you can link to any page. Like this:

$$ V:3:4::OpeningSystematicClassification

This would put a circle at 3,4 (because the 'z' parameter, which tells a number to put there, is ommitted) which, when clicked, leads to this page. In essence, it's just a way to link from diagrams.

Charles Matthews Several different problems here, really; and no reason to think that there is a single solution. The problem that has needed urgent practical solution during the time I've been hanging out at SL, is to construct 'this joseki' type links: separate out the discussion at hand, which is infinitely variable, in fact, from the joseki knowledge that underlies it (often just a few diagrams, that otherwise would get proliferated all over the site).

Therefore, speaking as someone who'd introduce such a link, I want to find the linked-to page in a hurry. If the name is ugly, the hyperlink syntax here allows it to be hidden. That's what systematic classification offers me.

For the rest, I know my way around fairly well, but the navigation aids requirement is simply going to grow with time.

I can see us evolving some convention of thumbnail type: any page with an unreadable title should begin with a diagram of the exact position or sequence, preferably oriented in a standard way. Perhaps that even might deserve some special format device.