194
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] maryjayjay@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

As a software engineer I'm interested in the value that would add over simply having combinations of the tags as is possible now

I think the question boils down to something like “For this data set, is there information captured by a tree representation that’s not captured by a list of categories?” Trees, or graphs in general, can capture path-based relationships. Categories are based of course on set theory.

I think both have their place, and like anything within mathematics or programming it comes down to which metaphor more naturally and easily expresses what you’re trying to do. I find trees and graphs easy to think about and represent visually, but it all depends on the problem space and the approach.

Note: This is assuming the kind of “tree” we implement permits multiple inheritance if needed.

[-] Natanael@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hierarchical tags is also possible. In fact Gmail has it, so you can for example create a work tag and then subtags for each company you worked at, and do similar things with hobby tags, and apply multiple tags

[-] maryjayjay@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I have a bachelor's degree in maths so I get where you're coming from. I'm asking, what specific functionality would nested tags provide that unnested tags do not. What is the return on investment for implementing this feature? Describe how this might improve your user experience with collections of objects? What actions in a user interface could you perform or would be made easier with nested tags that are not possible or are more cumbersome using only unnested tags?

[-] prashanthvsdvn@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Check this use case I mentioned here: https://lemmy.world/comment/6114731

Mostly when you have multiple events where you could have made few tags and sub tags to capture the data instead now you have make multiple tags with parent and children as a tag

Consider a data set that is naturally hierarchical and path related relationships are the central purpose of the data. Let’s say a genealogical database like some services run.

I can see a way of doing it with tags but mostly what I’m picturing has to add additional metadata to the tags that essentially represents the graph and has to add extra logic for resolving all of it.

If stored as nodes and edges you also have the capacity to add additional features to the relationships easily and naturally. That allows you do induce various subnetworks by edge flavor pretty easily. Network metrics such as centrality and clustering also fall out naturally.

Again, you can do it in tags because you can represent the network data as a table, which would in turn be translatable into possibly some long and complex tags. Or maybe there’s a more natural way, but for me the graph is easier to think about and write interesting algorithms for.

[-] prashanthvsdvn@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

These kind of tags are supported in all kinds of note taking apps. I don’t think it would be an Hercularian task to achieve it.

[-] DarkenLM@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Don't underestimate the legacy code. There's a reason we avoid it.

[-] prashanthvsdvn@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I’m not sure how much legacy code is written for contact apps in smartphones. But given the amount of tweaks and changes apple and Google make in each of their releases I would expect they wouldn’t have any problem integrating this feature.

Also you mentioned legacy code, but why T9 dialing isn’t a thing anymore coz that would be available if they were simply extending from legacy codebase.

[-] DarkenLM@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

I was just making a joke. Hopefully, those apps are not like the hardcoded messes that I've had to deal with before.

[-] maryjayjay@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

You're right, it's almost trivial.

But as someone who designs software I don't immediately see any additional functionality. I'd like to understand the benefit to see if I want to incorporate the feature sometime

[-] prashanthvsdvn@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Alright I’ll provide a use case scenario. I wanted to this functionality when I was in uni where a lot of my contacts had more than one role to play and I had trouble remembering all the roles my contact would have. Let’s say one of my contact was my coursemate but also worked in organizing committee of an event. I knew other members of the organizing comittee as well. So in the event that I needed to share an information with the entire organizing committee, I needed to remember committee list members instead of software helping me. And what about another contact who also part of the event but was on a different team like Public Relations. You could say just another tag would suffice no need for nested ones. But this kind of events happens multiple times and I would have to create multiple tags for multiple events (instead of nesting) and it becomes cumbersome managing the list.

[-] maryjayjay@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's awesome. I'd like to investigate it more...

You have the following contacts:

  • coursemate
  • commiteemember1
  • commiteemember2
  • commiteemember3
  • prguy

How would you like to tag them?

[-] prashanthvsdvn@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Let’s say I have 4 contacts A,B,C&D

A is both a course x mate and committee member for event 1 So tags for A are /batch20xx/course_x/ /event1/OC/

B is senior of course x and also a committee member so tags for B are /batch20xy/course_x/ /event1/OC/

C is a batch mate but on a different course y and also part of committee member and tags are /batch20xx/course_y/ /event1/OC/

D is also a batch mate and course mate but is in PR So their tags are /batch20xx/course_x/ /event1/PR/

I hope this helps.

this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
194 points (96.2% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27218 readers
1439 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS