Annotate Actions with Explanatory Information

[WardCunningham]

The client knows more about some edits than it records in the corresponding actions. For example, a move between pages gets recorded as a delete in one place and an add in the other. They are linked by ids but only if you know where to look. The editor could add these details to each action.

More speculatively, it could be useful to add manually entered comments that explain actions. The action might be too fine a unit for this conversation but lets start with it. An instructor might want to explain edits for pedagogical purposes.

Here is what your explanation might look like:

One advantage here is if you chose to delete the whole item there would still be a place to attach a comment.

We'd have to make sure that there is some way to see clearly what is under the stamp. Maybe hovering over the stamp should scroll the page under the stamp so that the affected paragraph is right under your comment, clearly visible.

Actions in the journal could be rendered with an adornment that alerted a reader to the presence of a comment. A red dot in the corner would do. Hover could show the comment without bringing up the revision.

There remains the question of how one types in a comment. I would hope old actions could have new comments too.