Computer system and method for abstracting and accessing a chronologically-arranged collection of information

Abstract

A computer system and method concurrently present multiple development threads represented by a collection of chronologically-arranged information. An abstraction stack is used to access a body of knowledge stratified into a plurality of levels of abstraction and including a plurality of information elements associated with the plurality of levels of abstraction and organized generally chronologically in the body of knowledge. The abstraction stack concurrently displays first and second representations of a common portion of the body of knowledge, with the first and second representations respectively displaying first and second information elements respectively associated with first and second levels of abstraction. The first and second levels of abstraction are respectively associated with separate development threads such that such threads are concurrently presented to a user. The development threads may be defined in a number of manners, including but not limited to different points of view, perspectives, writing styles, levels of comprehension and levels of detail. Moreover, further stratification of a body of knowledge may be performed to define additional abstraction schemes for the body of knowledge such that multiple representations of each development thread may be concurrently presented. A computer system and method may also stratify information using multiple abstraction schemes such that various information elements from a collection of information may be concurrently displayed in such a manner that the relationship of the information elements in terms of the multiple abstraction schemes may be presented to a user.