Here's a new page I added to the http://hyperworlds.org website:

From token_word to Xanadu

What will it take to move from token_word's functionality to that of
Xanadu?

The main question to ask is what do you want to do that you can't
do now on the Internet.

Token_word does not have embedded markup codes, such as the Web
has HTML. This is one of token_word's greatest strength's and one
of the Web's greatest weaknesses. Xanadu stresses the importance of
separating content from formatting. This way the same text can be
formatted in many ways for different purposes (such as matching the
formatting of other documents it is included in).

Xanadu uses "transclusions" to construct composite documents.
These will include all types of media. Token_word has these for
text. This is different than the usual "copy/cut and paste" used on
computers. Rather than making a copy of text, the original is
viewed in another document, as if using multiple layers of
transparent plastic. This has many advantages - simple tracking of
re-used content for fair royalty micro-payments, comparison of
changes among versions, unlimited re-use of copyrighted material,
and following extracts to examine original context.

Animators (before using computers) painted on layers of acetate and
stacked them to produce an image. This way a background painting
could be used for many frames without repainting everything for
each frame. It could be moved a little each frame to simulate
foreground object and camera movement. This was later done using
software layers. 3D animation allows rotating objects to see all
dimensions of something changing through time. In addition, the
attributes of an object (combinations of transparency,
translucency, reflectivity, texture, and dozens of other
attributes) could be animated through time. Objects can be linked
to affect each other's movement, appearance, and rotation.

Text, video, mathematically and artist generated graphics,
synthesized and sampled sound and music and speech, VR,
collaborative human and computer work and play, data mining,
simulated intuition - all these and more can be mixed, animated and
linked in potentially infinite dimensions.

Already it is possible for artists and musicians to produce
creative works with software that surprise even them. With the
mixed media described above and unhindered re-use of segments of
their own and other's work, new types of yet unimagined art,
science, mathematics, and philosophy will happen (the boundaries
between these "disciplines" blurring and often disappearing as in
Hermann Hesse's "The Glass Bead Game", also titled "Magister
Ludi").

Every existing type of software could be re-written to take
advantage of Xanadu's features. Perhaps the operating system could
handle much of it. The distinction is often blurring between the
OS, scripts, and applications - as the user will interact with a
composite of them - and with other people around the world.

Programming may roughly be divided into two aspects: data
structures and algorithms. Traditional programming places the
emphasis on algorithms (how to manipulate data). Xanadu and
token_word emphasize date structure. No amount of fancy
manipulation can make up for weak structure. A strong and flexible
structure that provides the capabilities here described makes
almost anything possible in software.

So far, token_word uses only one set of data to create each
document: content. To become more like Xanadu, two more sets need
to be added: formatting and links. token_word uses transclusions as
a sort of linking. This provides for linking to spans of text in
another document, quoting it exactly word for word. Full linking
will allow the links to read in words not in the document linked to
and also allow two documents to link to each other. token_word
allows this only partially. Formatting sets will allow a variety of
formats to be applied to the same content: different type styles
and sizes, collapsible outlines, etc. By overlaying the three data
sets, different views of a single text may be created.

The other major improvement will be to move to custom software
rather than using a browser. This will make it possible to do a
great number of things, such as editing text with formatting and
transpointing arrows between content in windows.