Applying the quoted **metaphor** to programs:
1. The compound idea *"what is hogging space"* into the simple ideas ``du | sort -n``
2. The relation between the ideas of text editors vi and emacs.
3. Separating the idea of an archive of a directory into a ``.tar`` and ``.gz`` portion; that it might become a ``.tar.xz`` archive instead.
Something useful like a **"shared system clipboard"** might involve all three steps:
* 2: See that both *Writer* and *Calc* have internal ways to copy and paste data.
* 3: Separate their internal copy/paste mechanisms; also their import/export data mechanisms from the rest of the program.
* 1: Connect these mechanisms to a **"shared system clipboard"**.
Re-apply the **metaphor** to art: e.g. factoring an image or music into sections or themes and resampling to a new image or music.
Re-re-apply the **metaphor** to programming an art editor: e.g. having an image or music editor operate on layers or tracks as well as transforms on those layers or tracks.
Re-re-re-apply the **metaphor** to programming a new editor; e.g. a ``minetest editor``. Okay, I have two buildings in random places, I want to copy them next to each other. I also have a generic "sidewalk" tiling with benches and lights and trees in a line I want to place between them, cutting off at appropriate parts. One is built on snow and one on grass so I want to "magic select" the ground layers; delete; and re-apply a gradient.
How hard can this ``minetest editor`` be? Well from painful experience I know it's very hard. But now I have a second question - programming ``audacity`` and ``GIMP`` were **already** very hard, but they are **already** done. Shouldn't there be some way to leverage most of them?
Of course this is also very hard. But it's a dream. Anyway, re-re-re-re-re-apply the **metaphor** to:
1. social programs (that **share** data online)
2. **sharing** data between different social programs (e.g. single sign on, multi-posting)
3. semantic **sharing**; how the posts are connected to each other
4. re-designing the social programs to facilitate the semantic **sharing** when people use them to compose posts
5. what are the common factors among how each social program would want to implement semantic ~~sharing~~ (previous ``sense``, do not re-bold), that themselves could be **shared** among them
And the thesis from #CategoryTheory seems to be: Don't try to start with an absolute conception of **sharing** that encompasses all the above ``senses``; a ``"set that contains itself"`` will blow up. Instead re-build the ``sense`` of **sharing** anew each time by fixing previous ``senses``.