Terminology and Concepts

[C.c]

@_camille

That is what I mean when I think Property is a better term than Relation. I feel that Property has the advantage of representing anything related to a single Object, without dependencies. Whereas Relation can only exist through the existence of a second thing to relate to. Sometimes an Object in a simple case, otherwise that can be a… Date, Text, Status? That sounds pretty murky and confusing to me.

Good capture. Perhaps we are talking about the following scenarios for types of connection.

1. Definition / necessary composition vs. Possibilities / situational components

• Journal object with date: date defines the existence of journal, thus necessary. But one could relate and click the date to access the date object
• vs. I am an anytype user and a relative to A: both of these are identity of mine, but irrelevant to each other.
  Both of these would look like properties, but they relate in different ways.

2. Connection point - part of which the connection is established.

• Family as the interacting property of a person to relate with a relative
• With transculsion, different blocks connecting to other blocks. ← each block is a connection point

3. Inter-connection and intra-connection

• Intra: transculsion within same object e.g. two points of interest in a conversation ← relation between contents / properties of a single object

• Inter:

  • object to object connection
  • object to another object’s point / content / property
  • object to relation connection e.g. A is inspired by B ← relation. A digests and takes notes on the inspiration, aka secondary reaction to the inspiration relation as “relation as object”.

4. Degree / force of connection e.g. correlation, causation, anti-relation ← Property of relation, not property of object

5. Dependencies

• If it is connection between two things, then it is as user-defined execution of connection, there is no implied dependencies.
• If it is indirect connection, the relation is implied because of its nature, e.g. a third level objects. A is married to B, and C loves B. A and C have no direct connection; unless involving B.

Perhaps Property is what defines the attribute / quality of a thing. It indicates if it is 0 and 1, or if it can become more than just text, and have style, measuring units, hierarchy, or multi-dimension etc. Property can exist anywhere. And Relation is the connection.

There is a need to consider logic inference in connection to maximise the function of relation. This would also distinguish simple link with rich relation. I will continue to support relation.

P.S. If we are to further discuss the function of property and relation, we might want to create a new topic.