[messaging] Message order in group chat (attempt at summary)

[Michael Rogers]

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On 20/04/14 19:55, Trevor Perrin wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 9:49 AM, Michael Rogers 
> <michael at briarproject.org> wrote:
>> 
>> If we're aiming to support linear conversations rather than
>> threaded conversations, we may need even less information than
>> that. We can model a linear conversation as a series of instants,
>> with one or more messages per instant; messages that occur in the
>> same instant are considered simultaneous. (There are no empty
>> instants - each instant lasts until somebody speaks.)
>> 
>> To display such a conversation, we need some way to indicate that
>> A follows B, and some way to indicate that A and B are
>> simultaneous. We don't need threads or nesting.
> 
> That's not strictly true - if A and B simultaneously respond to X, 
> then C and D could simultaneously respond to B (not having seen
> A), and now we have nesting.
> 
> You could argue this will be infrequent, and threads will mostly
> be linear with only the occasional simultaneous send (and with
> nesting even rarer).
> 
> If that's true, maybe the UI doesn't need to display nested 
> structures, but just needs to show some sign for "muddle" or 
> "simultaneous send" when things get more complex than linear?

Yes, exactly - any tree structure is possible, but since we're aiming
for a linear conversation we treat a branch as people talking at the
same time in a linear conversation, rather than as people branching
the conversation. And we aim to drop all but one of the branches as
soon as possible.

Cheers,
Michael
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