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devlogs/2024-04-09.md

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+# devlog 2024-04-09, some ui, some db
+
+Mix of things today. I did a lot of grinding on the front-end, which now has a few things added.
+
+## front end
+
+I did a lot of UI stuff with thoughts. 
+
+Thoughts are the major way you interact with Comind. They are posts, messages, living documents, groups of thoughts, concepts, etc. I want to make sure they feel good to look at and interact with, while also allowing the thoughts to blend together without making them feel to separate.
+
+Here's an example of the normal thought view, which kind of looks like a blog post. Note here that the thoughts are __too__ similar, it's not clear where one thought ends and another begins. I'll keep working on that.
+
+![The normal thought view.](/assets/2024-04-09/normal.png)
+
+A view I like more is an expandable thought view that includes a text box for entry. This works now -- if you type stuff in this box, you'll make a new thought and then link your new thought to the thought you're examining.
+
+![The expanded thought view.](/assets/2024-04-09/expanded.png)
+
+The expanded view is intended to say "hey, we are looking at this thing closely. please start showing me a lot of information about this thought". At this point, Comind should be able to show you a "flowering" of thoughts that help you understand, contextualize, and expand on the selected thought.
+
+- Is this thought related to something you agreed to do, like a task? Let's remind you of that task and highlight things you can do.
+- Do people agree with this thought? 
+- Has someone called it false, or provided evidence in support? 
+- If it is about an academic paper, what are other things to keep in mind? 
+- Is it an email from a certain person? If so, let's tell you about recent conversations with that person.
+- Is the thought attached to a concept? If so, invite a comind representing that concept to comment on the thought.
+
+It's still rough right now. If you noticed, that's a lot of information to convey, and a clean UI is one that conveys a relatively small amount of important information quickly.
+
+## db
+
+I've been playing around with a Rust webserver that just sits directly between the database and the front-end/core backend. Database stuff is actually super simple -- I don't want to keep fucking with it in the Julia backend. 
+
+I wrote some early code, but the configuration is kicking my ass. I gave up for the evening because I have to go rowing tomorrow AM and I don't want to be too grumpy.
+
+-- Cameron