User:Kim/Special Issue 26/Comments Reading

From XPUB & Lens-Based wiki

A source code comments reading using Inspector Extensions

project text

(700 chars)

Reading between the lines
In a brief intermission Kim reads source-code comments from the browser. While any form of code can be annotated in the programming process, these comments are not interpreted by the browser and with that remain hidden to the user.
Over the past months Kim has been working on layer a browser extension that allows to insert and overlay comments and other opaque elements from a websites source code into to the page itself.

In act between surfacing, inspection and re-interpretation layer collapses perceived bounds of a sites interface and its underlying source code.

Reading between the lines Kim opens a space of tension between intimacy and publicness, hack and failure, critique and community, function and poetics.

characters

/ Slash
| pipe
= equals
- dash
"" quotation marks
[ ] { } Brackets
( ) Parenthesis
: Colon


script



Reading between lines
a discourse in 10 tabs

Oxford english dictionary 'comment' (js)

www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=comment&tl=true
parse content: "comment" A remark or note in explanation, exposition or observation.
insert comments
1 JS Comment found
inspect 

   // Create a list of all the senses and sense-like elements
   // We use this to check which sense is in the viewport, so that we
   // can highlight the corresponding link in the table-of-contents.
   // Regular senses as found in 'meaning & use', 'phrasal verbs', and 'compounds'
   // (li.sense and li.compound-group elements). These are always leaf nodes
   // in the sense-structure tree, which is what we want
   // Sections in a variant-forms list (div.variant-forms-subsection...)
   // This is a bit more complicated, because these may or may not be leaf nodes
   // in the variant-forms tree. Since we only want leaf nodes, we have to filter
   // out instances of these elements which contain other instances as child elements.

interpret: A comment is never purely explanatory or neutrally observing but always already marks the presence of a second, of an interpretation. Etymologically "comment" derived from "commentum", classical Latin for "invention, fabrication, fiction" and if taken apart, we get com-, a prefix, and a base of "meminisse" meaning as much as "to remember," related to mens for "mind" or "to think". [1]


close tab

cambridge dictionary 'source code' (html)

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/source-code
parse content: "Source Code" noun, the set of computer instructions that have been written in order to create a program or piece of software
insert comments
13 HTML comments found
inspect 

   Twitter conversion tracking base code
   End Twitter conversion tracking base code
   mobile
   desktop
   clear entry
   data set
   submit
   preferred data sets
   translation
   market data set + localized data set
   other data set
   need a translator
   need to rework this part when we have the spec for the thesaurus dataset selector

interpret: If source code is a set of instructions directed to the computer, to whom are its comments addressed? To me, source codes often pose a narrow, even intimate space between the programmer and the machine. Can you imagine a source code characterized not as closed off but suggestive and inviting?


close tab

https://digitale-grafik.com/ (JS + html)

digitale-grafik.com
parse content: Against this backdrop, the Digitale Grafik class explores the integrity of modern technologies and conceives visual models in the context of culture and digital possibilities.
insert comments
4 HTML comments found
inspect 

When you can read this, you should apply! 💻🎒

back to insert mode
9 JS comments found
inspect 

   // Avoid `console` errors in browsers that lack a console.
   // Only stub undefined methods.
   // Place any jQuery/helper plugins in here.
   // Because it's hard to split a
   tag consistently across browsers,
   // (*ahem* IE *ahem*), we replace all
   instances with an md5 hash
   // (of the word "split"). If you're trying to use this plugin on that
   // md5 hash string, it will fail because you're being ridiculous.
   // Method calling logic
   return methods.init.apply( this, [].slice.call( arguments, 0 ) ); // always pass an array

interpret: Different programming languages seem to have different levels of openness, of publicness. I consider these influencial to the tone comments are written in and to whom. This question of the addressee becomes further obfuscated when reusing already commented code snippets or libraries written by other programmers.


close tab

Olia Lialina - Prof Dr Style (html)

contemporary-home-computing.org/prof-dr-style
parse content: "Every term I give an introduction to Interface Design studies to new students. [...] Most of the students will not be convinced and will choose to study graphic design. Even those who want to be web designers. Though 17 years of the WWW show that you need quite a different skill set for that."
insert comments
3 html comments found
inspect 

   Though 17 years of the WWW show that to be a good web designer it is better not to study at all than to study graphic design.
   end of footnotes
   end of column

interpretation: comments eventually contain what we want to say but dont. Acts of (self) censoring or indecisiveness towards the 'right' words bring forth phrases crossed out last minute. These comments pollute a body of text but on surface level remain illegible.


close tab

theusercondition.computer (html)

theusercondition.computer
parse content: What is the user’s horizon of autonomy within a built world made of software programmed by somebody else, when its logic is made inaccessible in the name of convenience?
insert comments
21 html comments found
inspect 

   open graph
   check the notes on notebook
   5
   118
   missing: mcneil, revisit Digital Folklore
   A bureaucratic "substitution of ends" would take place [check expression in Merton's Theory
   disappointment with the present later in the text
   - engelbart - ted nelson - stallman
   ## Not just computers - ruskin - ursula franklin - illich
   zuboff 89. upi user profile information
   testo ombra zuboff
   check goldsmith
   https://www.furtherfield.org/are-we-all-addicts-now/
   - Is this dérive similar to the one experienced by Simone Weil while she working in a factory? - read this https://ralphammer.com/make-me-think/ (beautiful illos!)
   29
   26
   146
   <script src="js/free-snake_virtualjoystick.js"></script>

back to insert mode
3 JS comments found
inspect 

   // Hacked by Raphaël Bastide
   // Original script from thecodeplayer.com

I spare you with a reading of the following rather mathematical joystick funtion

interpret: The essays author openly plays with different layers and materialities of this digital publication, such as intentionally logging information to the console, a developer tool utilized for debugging scripts. But other remarks of his are clearly not curated, nor directed towards publics. They remind me of notes made in a writing or proofreading process, scribbeled on the margin, a direct conversation between text and reader, expressed never to be to be regarded part of the content.


close tab


https://pad.xpub.nl/p/declarative-companions etherpad (js)

pad.xpub.nl/p/declarative-companions
parse content: 20 january morning: notes on display and position what is Display about? clean up - display: none; it's not really removing the element, it's hiding it
insert comments
1800 JS comments found
inspect 

   // HACK TODO
   // This is completely the wrong way to do it but for now it shows it works
   // console.warn("path is async and we're doing a ghetto fix");
   // Drop import silently
   // With all modules installed satisfy those conditions for all waiters

   // Send the users focus back to the pad
   // If we're in the editbar already..
   // Close any dropdowns we have open..
   // Check we're on a pad and not on the timeslider
   // Or some other window I haven't thought about!
   // Timeslider probably..

interpret: Does the diffuse publicness of any annotation (their situatedness withing, their proximity to the 'main text') render the space inviting for uttering hacks, frustration and improper solutions?


close tab

https://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/ (html)

www.w3.org/Style/CSS
parse content: These pages contain information on how to learn and use CSS and on available software. They also contain news from the CSS working group.
insert comments
6 html comments found
inspect 

   Editors & translators, please, edit Overview.en.tmpl, not .html
   @@@
   /@@@
   @@@
   /@@@
   Keep this comment at the end of the file Local variables: mode: html sgml-indent-step:1 sgml-basic-offset:1 End:

interpret: I like to think of margins, the space where we find comments, as productive, a zone of encounter. In the tricky task of writing together, comments are directed towards collaborators and not the public. They create a parallel thread to what is intended to be on the page.


close tab

https://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-CSS2-20080411/ CSS2 specification (css)

www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-CSS2-20080411
parse content: "This specification defines Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 (CSS2). CSS2 is a style sheet language that allows authors and users to attach style (e.g., fonts, spacing, and aural cues) to structured documents (e.g., HTML documents and XML applications)."
insert comments
15 CSS comments found
inspect 

   /* text-align: justify; */
   /* For the REC: background: #def url(recbg.jpg); */
   /* I don't like all that blue text, how about this: */
   /* It should be 'inherit', but Netscape inserts a random color :-( */

interpret: Comments do not only pose a conversational, collaborational space. In revealing subjectiveness and opinion they remind us that official documents such as this standard are far from objective but made up, contrived by one or several people.


close tab

https://words-on-margins.website/workshop/index.html (html)

words-on-margins.website/workshop/index.html
parse content: Challenging the perception of digital text as intangible and flat, we strive to explore its materialities and possibilities for inscription and relation.
insert comments
18 html comments found
inspect 

   
    Kim: I now made a little bit of a mix of everything, feel free to change it, I am also not still 100% happy with it
    Polina: alternative title: collaborative writing in digital margins
    Polina: alternative title: writing together on the margins of the web
    Polina: alternative title: writing on the browser margins
    Polina: here are some of the terms which we think are relevant
    <p> Historically, marginalia have been used by readers as a way of interacting with the text on a personal level. They offer insights into the reader's thoughts and can be a form of dialogue between different readers of the same text over time, especially in shared or passed-down books. </p> 
    Kim: this might be a bit extensive from here on, maybe something we'd talk about (in an introduction) and then just a short mentioning here
    Kim: for now I added another detail tag :)
    <p> I feel margins (and experimenting with, exceeding 'mise-en-page') are just making a reappearance with rising interest in autotheoretic arts and writing. <details> <summary class="inner">We thought of these two examples</summary> <ul> <li> Maggie Nelson – the argonauts  <li> Roland Bartes – A Lovers Discourse <br> </li> </ul>
    Polina: sorry, i commented that out for now, since we talk about it more in details in our presentation i thought we might keep the glossary short.
    <p> Excessiveness is the condition of revelation, of emancipation from established meaning and of the disclosure of an unseen horizon of signification: the possible.” (Berardi, 2018, p. 20) </p>
    Kim: maybe we can talk about this last quote some time, I cant really figure out what it means, would be interested in how you understand this
    Kim: added this little footer for some kind of reference, what do you think?
    Polina: love it!
    proposal

interpret: surpassing the amount (and significance?) of the main text on the website itself, comments penetrate perceived bounds and anticipated hierarchies between margins and centers of attention.


close tab

Olia Lialina - art.teleportacia.org (html)

art.teleportacia.org/#CenterOfTheUniverse
parse content: "Welcome to olia lialina's home!"
insert comments
47 html comments found
inspect 

   BIG SPACE
     oldschool deco
     The Crater to click on
     Emergency Button
     The center of the universe
     The Project List
     2013
     2012
     2008
     Online Newspapers New York Edition
     Agatha appears, restored
     2007
     3 Blingee Masterpieces
     2006
     Midnight
     With Elements of Web 2.0
     2005
     Animated GIF Model
     frozen niki
     2004
     online newspapers
     1000$
     2003
     Merry Christmas
     GRAVITY
     Zombie and Mummy
     2002
     some universe
     2001
     Artist as an expert
     2000
     Masha Draws
     LAST REAL NET ART MUSEUM
     1999
     Location=Yes
     1998
     miniatures of the heroic period
     www.teleportacia.org
     banners
     ART.TELEPORTACIA.ORG
     MASTHEAD
     end of project list
     Observation
     end of observation
     end of Books
     end of the center of the universe


close tab

Retrieved from "https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mw-mediadesign/index.php?title=User:Kim/Special_Issue_26/Comments_Reading&oldid=297075"