.title
data structure

.synonym
overview of the data structure

.description
A description of the file structure of a Hyperties database.

.contents

.para

The Hyperties database system is implemented in the standard file
systems available in most operating systems (though UNIX and MS-DOS
are of primary concern).

.para
A Hyperties database is made of a collection of articles. 

.para
In general, a document (i.e. a node in the
hypertext network) is represented by a collection of files.
The only necessary file is the .~ storyboard~  which serves as the primary description of the article's format and
content.  It is a text-only file, therefore human readable.

.para
Other .~ associated files~  contain picture description (or other data, such
as digitized sound, that will not normally be represented as
human-readable text) and information used to allow rapid presentation
of the document at browsing time.

.para
One special file, the .~ master index~, exists to provide the association between the article files and the
database as a whole.

A special directory, .~ ties/global~, contains all the defaults settings and initializations.


.para
The new Hyperties database format permits great freedom in the
organization of a database's component files.  An author can impose a
hierarchical structure (or any other that is suitably mnemonic), using the
features of the standard filesystem found in UNIX and MS-DOS, to simplify
access to components of the database when a fully-integrated authoring
environment is not available, and to "flatten" the structure of a database
to optimize use of storage when authoring is fully supported. 

.para
Also, the new format will allow spreading the component files of a
database across multiple devices, allowing larger databases to be used
on floppy-based systems.