Labels Introduction

The original idea for X was that you could take two (or more) metaphors, each with its own range of possible essences (like two circles), and put them side by side. The part of the essence circles that overlapped was the essence that you were trying to get across.

But now, with a Label, you do not have to stick with the overlap default. You could say that one attribute subtracts from its sibling attributes.

Or adds itself.

Or obscures it like a cloud. Or stabs in like a knife. Or drips over it like blood. Or anything else you can think of. The context of a label is an element, and elements can be anything.

So, how does it work? Simply. It is positioned as the last piece of the Tag – after the Alias and Title, you – and preceded by a splat (asterisk: *).

Title:Alias*Label [

Or as the only part of the tag present it would look like this:

*Label [

Though it is an element, it is not necessary to enclose it in the angled brackets, as it is already enclosed by the splat and the beginning delimiter of the attribute.

Usually.

But there is this thing called ‘Doubled Labels’ that makes angled brackets necessary sometimes.

A doubled label is what happens when you want to say how a label itself affects its attribute. And the syntax would be: Splat – Splat – Label of the label – Label – Beginning delimiter of the attribute.

So the only way you can differentiate the label of the label and the label of the attribute is by one orboth of them being enclosed in angled brackets. Like so:

**Label of the label<Label>[

Or:

Spirit:Beta**ALLEGORICAL<A kraken hidden in the sea> [

What is that ALLEGORICAL in capital letters? That, is a Keyword.

Which will be explained in another essay.

(Oh, just for clarification: when you do not use a label on an attribute (labels are optional, same as the rest of the tag), the default is Intersect for elements (the overlap idea you know), and Add for the higher attributes.)

Have fun, and be creative!

ECSS++ Changes Overview

X++ (the shortcut for saying ECSS++) is the upgrade of Xbasic: the principle stays the same, but you can do more with it. The additions are extensive in quantity, though, and adequate explanations of all of them would not really fit into one essay, so this is going to be general overview of their functions. Separate tutorials will have to be written for the syntax, strategy, etc. of each one.

So, in X++ there are:

• Aliases: a new part of the Tag, which allows you to reference to an attribute from another attribute. That may not sound very exciting at first, but if you actually start using them, and have a little imagination, they can add an entirely new dimension.
• Labels: another new part of the Tag, which allows you to specify exactly how one attribute affects its siblings, instead of having to stick with boring defaults.
• Carets: which allow you to use an unlimited number of relatively unconnected pieces of the various parts of the Tag. Very, very useful.
• Keywords: special uppercase words that have reserved meanings, for use in labels or elements.
• Dashes: which are rather like a short hand for embedding a child element in another element. Particularly nice for color elements.
• Slashes: which allow you to link two metaphors into one element. Distinctly helpful.
• Pipes: which are similar to parentheses in mathematical computations – essential for clarification of ambiguous ordering of slashes and dashes.
• Escape Marks: which escape sections of syntax, just in case you want to use parentheses, or dashes, or even, maybe, quotation marks, with their usual functions instead of their X functions.
• Notes: which allow you to, as it were, converse with the reader of your X normally, bestowing helpful warnings or injunctions or anything else you might want to say into the Xmap without messing it up.

And that is all for now – though – maybe – in the indistinct future – you might start hearing mentions of Xelite. But, that is another story for another time.

ECSSbasic Introduction

Felicitations,

Essence is not a system of attributes, metaphors, classes, and elements. Neither is it a classification for anything. We did not make it up. It is ancient, originating from the beginning of the creation. You see, there is essence, and there is ECSS (Essence Cascading Style Sheets). And when one does not understand what essence is, it is hard for one to understand what ECSS is.

Patrick (Tsahraf) says that essence is “The unique impression upon one’s emotions by a set of sensations.” To quote Jay (Sir Emeth) it is “… an artistic impression or idea, no matter how nebulous or exact…” And Noah Webster wrote “Mr. Locke makes a distinction between ‘nominal’ essence and ‘real’ essence. The ‘nominal’ essence of gold is that complex idea expressed by God; the ‘real’ essence is the constitution of its insensible parts, …” all of these quotes reflect facets of what essence is.

There are many different ways of portraying or articulating essence. Poetry, music, drawing, sculpting are some examples. Making essence pages with Gimp is another (see the avatar gallery). And we (my two brothers and I) made one up ourselves. At first we called it essence, but that was very confusing, so we put our heads together (over the Webster’s 1828 dictionary) and came up with ECSS, a type of Essence Mapping. So that is what it is called now, and this is how it works.

I will here outline ECSSbasic, which is a corrected version of our earlier form of essence mapping. We have recently improved and expanded ECSSbasic to become ECSS++, which we will introduce you to in future posts. For now, be satisfied with ECSSbasic.

The ECSS system is a system to organize separate metaphors in an attempt to describe, present, or create an essence in the mind of the reader. This is done by establishing a hierarchy of Topic, Aspects, Classes, Characteristics, and Elements which is then used to group the metaphors into different focuses.

An example, you may wish to use the metaphor of a budding flower for a girl, named Lucy for convenience sake. This metaphor of a budding flower is first restricted within the topic, Lucy. Then, since you only mean that the budding flower applies to her spirit, the metaphor is placed under the aspect Spirit. The budding flower represents the freshness of the spirit of Lucy, and so it is placed within the class, Freshness. Then, the budding flower is only meant to be the light of the freshness, so it is placed within the characteristic Light. And the Element is the metaphor itself: budding flower.

Lucy

Spirit {

Freshness [

Light (

<budding flower> ) ] }

But the metaphor of ‘budding flower’ is still imprecise, though focused, though the hierarchy, to a certain point. The metaphor’s essence has a range of meanings, which can be represented by a circle. We want to make it smaller, lessening the possibility of confusion in the reader. But you cannot do this very easily, so we have devised a way to do this in ECSS.

You take the circle (the range of possible essence meanings of a metaphor) of another metaphor, and state that where those two circles intersect is the essence that you are trying to describe in the ECSS.

So we can add another metaphor as a sibling of the budding flower: a sunrise.

Lucy

Spirit {

Freshness [

Light (

<budding flower>

<a sunrise> ) ] }

Alright a little explanation about that {](>bleah stuff.

Each attribute (Aspect, Class, Characteristic, or Element) has its own delimiter. This is what encloses an attribute’s content, enabling the powerful nesting ability to function. Aspects use { curly braces/brackets.} Classes use [ square brackets.] Characteristics use ( parenthesis.) Elements use < angle brackets.>

The delimiters always follow the title of the attribute, and enclose all of its contents. Easy ’nuff.

You can put any attribute in any attribute that is a higher level than itself. Elements can go directly under Aspects. Classes can go inside Classes. Characteristics cannot go inside Elements.

You can have as many sibling attributes as you want, regardless of the type of attribute. You can have several Aspects, several Classes, whatever.

Any questions are very welcome.

Cordially,

Lady Rwebhu Kidh (with collaboration)