FETSORN
One of the simple thoughts is the ability of the computer to understand the abstraction of the event.
We people think in events, whether Western or Chinese, we think in tales and stories, and we divide them
into steps. Such an image of the path and steps we lay at the foundation of our perception of time.

FETSORN
Computers do not think in events, for them there is no time. /*Why I do not know, there were real-time
processing OS, event-based OS, but they never become mainstream. / I think that this is partly due to the
fact that time is an illusion and does not exist at all, and any engineer quickly notices that you can do
without it. / Partly this may be due to some details of the history of the development of the PC. */
In short, computers basically ignore the abstraction of an event, and we live by it.

FETSORN
So we still find how to push our idea of events into the computer. We find any part of the computer
in which, by chance, there are sufficient means to express the image of the path and time - and we abuse
this part.

FETSORN
For example, each operating system provides the ability to make folders, directories - in the hope that
users will build thematic category trees. We name the folders ”2002” and ”2003-photo” and create a
timeline. They add a post date on Instagram in hopes of analyzing our big data. We fill the tape with
the events of life so that later we can look at it as a path. Microsoft Word allows us to format texts. We
build lists and headings with dates there, we call the files ”may2023doc1”.

FETSORN
I used to do all this, and searched for a tool that was originally designed to work with the abstraction
of an event. Event abstraction requires 1) event object 2) event metadata 3) path image in which events
are built by metadata.

FETSORN
I’m almost sure that somewhere there was or already is a piece of software that
perfectly fulfills all these three points and allows you to build paths of events - but I looked for it and did
not find it, so I’m making prototypes.
/**
FETSORN
While I’m making prototypes, I picked up an interface. The interface consists of a timeline running
vertically on the left, and an event profile arranged as a shape on the right. In the panel at the top, I
placed a filter that allows you to rebuild the path according to event metadata. On a mobile phone, the
panel is located above the time line, and below the profile.
Probably the interface is somewhat reminiscent of a book, if you could tear out the right page from
the book, or a messenger app, where on the left side is a list of dialogs, and on the right side is a form
for messages of the selected dialog.

FETSORN
Once the profile was on the left, and the event line on the right - and went to the right endlessly. But
the infinite right scroll is not supported by all browsers, so I agreed with the demands to remove it. I
also agreed with the demands to place the path on the left, and the profile on the right - it is customary
to place the elements of the general order on the left. I also placed the line vertically, not horizontally,
because our browsers scroll from top to bottom, not to the sides.
These decisions were caused, it seemed, by the needs and requirements of early users and reviewers.

FETSORN
While I’m making prototypes, I also picked up the technological stack. I wanted the application to
work everywhere, use common technologies, be free, open and extensible. The most common technology
is the browser, the most popular technology for applications in it is React. On the desktop, Electron
stores files locally. But for freedom, openness and extensibility, I had to come up with my own database
solution.

FETSORN
When I started working on the prototype, the market was still full of Web 2.0, that is, RestAPI
services with a PostgreSQL database on the server. I’ve seen my own org-mode files become more and
more like a vast database - with search and organization capabilities surpassing the popular ”Inotes” or
”OneNote” enterprise note products.

FETSORN
I did not use recutils for three reasons: 1) the format did not support large pieces of multipage text
well 2) the utilities returned a segfault to me more than once and 3) the developer stopped supporting
and developing the project, and 4) the data was not deduplicated, so the memory grew too fast.

**/

FETSORN
In short, it ended up that I began to store everything in my database, which stores key-value pairs in
csv files with two columns.

FETSORN
The ease and readability of plain-text files allowed me to store them in the browser’s memory and
not use a server. A simple parsing algorithm and plain-text file content accessible to any schoolchild
or senior mean extensibility - anyone can write their own algorithms for working with such a database.
The hashability and archiveability of plain-text files allowed me to store them in git version control and
exchange them via git hosting services like GitHub.

FETSORN
Total freedom, openness and extensibility - the browser stores the database in itself, communicates
with other browsers through the git hosting service, and anyone who doesn’t even know anything about
my system can read the database with the naked eye, and an engineer can write a parser for it in an evening.
In sum, an interface for the path of events, made in the browser with a text database and git. Any
files and events can be entered into such a database.

/**
FETSORN
This is where the basis of the dictates of the mind ends. If four years ago I had found a program
designed for work with events in a free, open and extensible manner, now I would be telling you about
it. But I haven’t found it yet and I’m talking about my achievements. Who knows, please share what I
missed on the market.
**/

FETSORN
The following are things that can be done on the basis of a free, open and extensible program designed
to work with events.

FETSORN
For example, file management. Folders with names like ”2023-Sochi” lose their availability already in the
third year of a person’s life, when there are thirty-six of them. The myriad files that some of us hoard on
our hard drives are organized in a file system where they shouldn’t be organized.

FETSORN
Instead, we should see that each file has metadata, and that we want to have one path image consisting
of all our files. With the ability to change metadata, and rebuild the path based on them. To connect
my prototype to your disk, it is enough to run a parser that will collect data about all your files into a
text database - name, file type, creation date and changes, folders leading to it. Now you can find ”All
university text files from May 2006” and you can find ”all photos from all my birthdays”

FETSORN
Another example is genealogy, family history, working with memory, a database of personal files. Each of us
knows more people than in a prehistoric village, and we can’t keep everyone in mind. Our ancestors look
at us from the sky, forgotten in the hustle and bustle. In the hope of somehow saving the situation, we
abuse the means of the computer - we hope that social networks with all the Rolexes will not disappear
in the near future, we save records of the birthdays of relatives and old memories in the phone notes, we
create secret Word documents with contacts of people important to us.

FETSORN
Meanwhile, a program designed to work with events allows you to organize an innumerable number of
lifelines of all kinds of people. ”all the events of the life of all people on Tuesdays”, ”the events of the life
of a great-grandfather in World War II”, ”who was at the party somewhere in May 2007”. To make such
requests, it is enough to add your ancestors to the text database of events. The events of their births are
birthdays, the events of their deaths are anniversaries, the stories of their lives are incidents that subtly
feed our lives.

FETSORN
Another example is the management of creative works. Many of us have the opportunity to produce daily
works that were previously given the status of art. Messages in messengers - epistolary art. Posts in social
networks - essays and autobiography. Music and drawings began to be produced so simply that some do
not know what to do with a flurry of works.

FETSORN
We push all these works into services that are poorly designed for them, hard to read, and live only
for a few years - in social networks, in phone notes, in Google drives, in Word files. While each of the
works can be seen as a significant event, with metadata that embeds it in the overall path of our lives.

FETSORN
But more than that, a program designed to work with such events can easily publish them to dozens
of popular platforms today. Write a text and publish it to three social networks. Write a song and
publish it to three music platforms. Record a speech, send it to a friend in messages, decipher it
with a neural network and upload it to a blog. Computers can do all this, they just need a little help
not to get confused, which is what I’m trying to do.

/**
FETSORN
Even though I keep the code open source, this is an application for my community. I hope my friends
and family find it useful and reliable.
**/