Minimalist Principles Research Articles

A Minimalist Perspective of Interrogatives in the Punjabi Language

Chomsky’s Theory of Universal Grammar (UG) (1993, 1995) incorporates some universal principles for grammatical descriptions of all possible human languages. It is because all aspects of human languages may not be universal; this theory also offers some parameters through which languages may vary from one to another. The Minimalist Program (MP) (Chomsky, 1993) as a part of UG follows minimalist principles such as the principle of economy, the principle of uniformity, and the search for simplicity, which guide the creation of grammatical rules and representations. The current study analysed the interrogative sentences in Punjabi to determine the similarities between Punjabi and English by using the Minimalist Program (MP) as a theoretical framework. Almost all Punjabi dialects or Standard Punjabi published in the academic context provide many ways to express interrogation. Two common types of interrogative sentences analysed here include yes-no questions and wh-questions which are also called k-questions in Punjabi because they start with a k sound, for instance, kitthe (where), kinj (how), kaunN (why), kii (what), etc, have been analysed. The analysis showed that there is no obligatory movement, either in the case of yes-no questions or in wh-movement in Punjabi, such as in English. Similarly, unlike English, there is neither the movement of auxiliaries nor of any other word in any interrogative sentence. Furthermore, the study concluded that the analysis of the Punjabi language through minimalism is possible and, therefore, it is implied that Punjabi follows the proposed principle of Universal Grammar.

The Low Value of Equality and Social Inclusion in Fragmented and Discriminatory Latin American Societies

This article aims to analyze the fragmented mix of social policies in Latin America, guided by minimalist principles and instruments of liberal thinking on individual meritocracy and contributory insurance, in order to discuss the challenges to and possibilities of developing universal policies. The article describes the historically social, economic and political contexts and pressures that frame the process of building fragmented social policies in the region; the contradictions, disadvantages, and limited achievements of these fragmented systems in terms of coverage, generosity and quality of health and pensions. Results show that expansive and fragmented welfare policies reproduce differences in quality and scope and increase social inequalities and conflicts; the challenges of building universal rights, citizenship and equality in Latin America, considering current public-private agreements, political coalitions, and interclass alliances, and the need to reorient social policies in order to overcome conflicts of interest, discrimination and market resistance, and to
 promote equality.

Survival

This paper explores examples of Mars fiction of “terraforming”—of creating Earth-like environments in space—against the background of the Earth’s environmental degradation and restoration. Visions of Mars settlement offered an escape route for a threatened humanity and a blueprint for the eco-technological recreation of the Earth’s environment. This paper aims to outline the Anthropocene as an epoch that not only compromised the Earth but also essentially transformed the understanding of Earthly life to a minimalist principle of survival through infinite metabolic conversions. This understanding of immortality conjoined images of recreation and creation, of paradisiacal pasts and eco-technological futures.

Optimality and Plausibility in Language Design

The Minimalist Program in generative syntax has been the subject of much rancour, a good proportion of it stoked by Noam Chomsky’s suggestion that language may represent “a ‘perfect solution’ to minimal design specifications.” A particular flash point has been the application of Minimalist principles to speculations about how language evolved in the human species. This paper argues that Minimalism is well supported as a plausible approach to language evolution. It is claimed that an assumption of minimal design specifications like that employed in MP syntax satisfies three key desiderata of evolutionary and general scientific plausibility: Physical Optimism, Rational Optimism, and Darwin’s Problem. In support of this claim, the methodologies employed in MP to maximise parsimony are characterised through an analysis of recent theories in Minimalist syntax, and those methodologies are defended with reference to practices and arguments from evolutionary biology and other natural sciences.

Constraining neutron guide optimizations with phase-space considerations

We introduce a method named the Minimalist Principle that serves to reduce the parameter space for neutron guide optimization when the required beam divergence is limited. The reduced parameter space will restrict the optimization to guides with a minimal neutron intake that are still theoretically able to deliver the maximal possible performance. The geometrical constraints are derived using phase-space propagation from moderator to guide and from guide to sample, while assuming that the optimized guides will achieve perfect transport of the limited neutron intake.Guide systems optimized using these constraints are shown to provide performance close to guides optimized without any constraints, however the divergence received at the sample is limited to the desired interval, even when the neutron transport is not limited by the supermirrors used in the guide.As the constraints strongly limit the parameter space for the optimizer, two control parameters are introduced that can be used to adjust the selected subspace, effectively balancing between maximizing neutron transport and avoiding background from unnecessary neutrons. One parameter is needed to describe the expected focusing abilities of the guide to be optimized, going from perfectly focusing to no correlation between position and velocity. The second parameter controls neutron intake into the guide, so that one can select exactly how aggressively the background should be limited.We show examples of guides optimized using these constraints which demonstrates the higher signal to noise than conventional optimizations. Furthermore the parameter controlling neutron intake is explored which shows that the simulated optimal neutron intake is close to the analytically predicted, when assuming that the guide is dominated by multiple scattering events.

Implications of the CMS search for W R on grand unification

The CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider has reported a 2.8$\sigma$ excess in the $(2e)(2jets)$ channel around 2.1 TeV. Interpretation of this data is reconsidered in terms of the production of a right-handed weak gauge boson, $W_R$, of the left-right symmetric model and in an $SO(10)$ grand unified theory abiding by the Extended Survival Hypothesis. The left-right symmetric model can be consistent with this excess if (a) the heavy right-handed neutrino has a mass near $W_R$, or (b) if $g_L \neq g_R$, or (c) the right-handed CKM matrix is nontrivial. Combinations of the above possibilities are also viable. A $W_R$ with a mass in the TeV region if embedded in $SO(10)$ is not compatible with $g_L = g_R$. Rather, it implies $0.64 \leq g_R/g_L \leq 0.78$. Further, a unique symmetry-breaking route -- the order being left-right discrete symmetry breaking first, followed by $SU(4)_C$ and finally $SU(2)_R$ -- to the standard model is picked out. The $L \leftrightarrow R$ discrete symmetry has to be broken at around $10^{16}$ GeV. The grand unification scale is pushed to $10^{18}$ GeV making the detection of proton decay in ongoing searches rather unlikely. The $SU(4)_C$ breaking scale can be at its allowed lower limit of $10^6$ GeV so that $n - \bar{n}$ oscillation or flavour changing processes such as $K_L \rightarrow \mu e$ and $B_{d,s} \rightarrow \mu e$ may be detectable. The Higgs scalar multiplets responsible for $SO(10)$ symmetry breaking at various stages are uniquely identified so long as one adheres to a minimalist principle. We also remark, {\em en passant}, about a partially unified Pati-Salam model.

The Power in Digital Literacy and Algorithmic Skill

We argue that in educational contexts ICT (Information and Communications Technology) and CS (Computer Sciences) should not be separated. To support our ideas, we present methods related to the minimalist principle with which students with different interests would develop algorithmic skills even in an ICT environment, and this introductory phase would lead the students on to more serious CS studies. The core of these methods is that from the very beginning of CSI education algorithms should be looked for in every computer-related problem. Deep-approach metacognitive methods should be applied, instead of uncontrolled sequences of surface-approach metacognitive activities such as aimless clicking, unplanned wandering, and relying on the newest features in graphical user interfaces (GUI). Our team has developed a deep-approach metacognitive method for teaching spreadsheet to novices, which is in accordance with the concept of building algorithms to solve computer-related problems. The three cornerstones of the method are (1) introducing as simple and as few functions as possible, (2) building multilevel formulas based on these functions, and (3) focusing on the problem instead of the features of the software. As the students make progress, the number of functions would be increased, but general purpose functions would still be focused on. Testing our deep-approach method has proved that it is a lot more effective in teaching spreadsheet than the classical surface-approach, wizard-based metacognitive methods, since all the basic elements are in accordance with the minimalist theory, which advises teaching as simple a language as possible for beginners to develop basic algorithmic skills. Beyond the direct advantages of the method, spreadsheet would serve as an introductory language to high level programming languages, which is our ultimate goal.

Multidominance and locality

Merger of a phrase for the second time (i.e. remerge) leads to structure sharing, which can be represented by a multidominance graph. Depending on the configuration, this corresponds to what is traditionally considered either regular movement or sideward sharing. These two types of remerge exhibit somewhat different properties. Basic Minimalist principles predict that locality constraints can be circumvented by the second type, yielding apparently nonlocal dependencies. Such effects are indeed attested in right node raising, insubordination, and amalgamated sentences. The fact that the first type cannot circumvent locality constraints is shown to explain why apparent nonlocal dependencies are absent in across-the-board movement and parasitic gap constructions.

Verb Agreement Features in Standard Arabic (SA): A Minimalist Approach

The present study investigates the features of the verb agreement in Standard Arabic (SA).The investigation is conducted within the framework of the principles of Chomsky's Minimalism. The main objective of the study is to survey the applicability of the Minimalist principles on the derivation of SV order and VO order in SA. The study shows that the principles of Minimalism cannot account for the feature of agreement asymmetry either in SV order or VS order. The study concludes that principles of Minimalism needs to be modified to justify the asymmetry in agreement features of the verb in both SV and VS orders in SA.

A Gestalt–Minimalism-based decision-making model for evaluating product form design

This paper presents a novel methodology for dealing with decision-making problems in product design fields. The purpose of this study is to evaluate product form design in terms of the perspectives of Gestalt psychology and Minimalist principles. Unlike traditional AHP methods, the proposed decision-making model uses distinct mathematical tools to establish priorities for the criteria and synthesize the evaluation results. A case study was conducted to illustrate the practicability of this proposed model. It has shown a credible result. In addition to product form design, this model can be applied to related design fields, such as plane design and other visual design. Relevance to industry Product form design is a creative process that involves complex visual perceptions. It is very important to develop an effective decision support system for designers to deal with problems concerning the consumers’ psychological preferences toward product forms. As Gestalt psychology and Minimalist principles provide an important perspective on visual perception, it is appropriate to apply these principles in assessing the quality of product form design.

Structures and beyond: The cartography of syntactic structures, vol. 3 (review)

Reviewed by: Structures and beyond: The cartography of syntactic structuresed. by Adriana Belletti Günther Grewendorf Structures and beyond: The cartography of syntactic structures, vol. 3. Ed. by Adriana Belletti. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Pp. 288. ISBN 0195171969. $55. This volume grew out of a workshop held at the Certosa di Pontignano of the University of Siena. The workshop, which took place in connection with Noam Chomsky’s stay at the University of Siena during the fall of 1999, was part of the Cartographic Research Project, which deals with the hierarchical organization of language structure and aims at drawing fine-grained maps of clause structure, thereby identifying different types of structural positions. The present collection of the (revised) conference papers continues the series of cartographic volumes edited by Cinque (2002) and Rizzi (2004). Unlike its predecessors, which are specifically related to cartographic issues, Adriana Belletti’s volume connects the cartographic studies with other approaches to the study of language structure, and thus takes a wider perspective on current theoretical and experimental research on language. The articles of this volume, written by leading representatives of the field, relate the Cartographic Project to recent developments of Chomsky’s minimalist program, of Kayne’s antisymmetric approach, and of research into the syntax-semantic interface, as well as fundamental issues in experimental neurolinguistics and psycholinguistics. Although the articles are not grouped according to their topics but are given in alphabetical order by author, my review classifies them into three major research areas, and thus follows the organization of the instructive introduction written by Belletti. In the introduction, Belletti crucially points out that the apparent tension that seems to exist between the rich functional structures postulated by the Cartographic Project and the minimalist attempt to reduce structural complexity can in fact be taken to be merely apparent if the functional positions are all interpretable and thus do not conflict with the minimalist principle of full interpretation. There are three papers that deal with minimalist issues and questions of antisymmetric syntax. The chapter by N oamC homsky(‘Beyond explanatory adequacy’, 104–31) proceeds from the ‘biolinguistic’ assumption that the properties of the language L acquired by the child result from the interaction of three factors: (i) the genetically determined initial state S 0(also called the ‘universal grammar’); (ii) the individual experience (also called the ‘primary linguistic data’), which determines the transition from the initial state S 0to L; and, finally, (iii) general properties of organic systems. Since the faculty of language interacts with other organic systems such as the sensorimotor and the conceptual-intentional system, these systems impose ‘interface conditions’ [End Page 179]on this faculty that provide what Chomsky calls ‘the principled elements of S 0’ (106) and explain (‘beyond explanatory adequacy’) why the properties of language are the way they are. ‘Narrow syntax’ is based on the fundamental operations ‘external’ and ‘internal’ Merge, both conceptually motivated by requirements of the conceptual-intentional system: external Merge is a structure-building device for the generation of argument structures; internal Merge (movement) is motivated by nontheta-theoretic semantic conditions that concern scopal and discourse-related (informational) properties. Chomsky’s paper further provides interesting modifications and refinements of the theory of phases developed in Chomsky 2001. Phases are seen as those stages of the syntactic derivation where units constructed by the narrow syntax are transferred to the phonological and the semantic component, which then derive the interface representations <;PHON, SEM>. Since the latter are accessed by external organic systems, they have to satisfy a condition of ‘legibility’. Chomsky provides empirical and conceptual motivation for the assumption that all operations in narrow syntax (Agree, Movement, and Transfer) are driven by properties of the heads of phases and apply simultaneously. He furthermore answers the question of why these operations exist and shows that they can receive a principled explanation. In line with Chomsky’s elimination of Spec-Head agreement, M ichaelS tarke’s contribution (‘On the inexistence of specifiers and the nature of heads’, 252–68) argues for the inexistence of specifiers since specifiers redundantly contain the same features as heads and only ‘add space’ around heads. He tries to show that the head...

Development of Diagrammatic Procedural Instructions for Performing Complex One-Time Tasks

This article provides evidence that diagrams in procedural instructions can help as well as hinder performance depending on how the diagrams are designed. Results suggest that diagrammatic instructions for performing one-time mechanical manipulation tasks that are designed according to specific rules are superior to equivalent instructions presented as a combination of text and diagrams. Tasks were completed quicker with fewer errors. One important factor is that these types of tasks do not require learning or memorization. The goal for the instruction designer is to create diagrammatic instructions in accordance with Carroll's (1990) minimalist principles as well as verifying that each step occurs in either an internal or external representation (Zhang, 1997). Contrary to what is presented in the literature, this series of experiments provides evidence that if the diagrams are well designed they can be perceived, understood, and performed quicker than the same information in a text and diagram format.

Development of Diagrammatic Procedural Instructions for Performing Complex One-Time Tasks

This study provides evidence that pictures and diagrams can help as well as hinder performance depending on the nature of the task and the skill level of the user. Results suggest that diagrammatic instructions for performing one-time mechanical manipulation tasks are superior to equivalent instructions presented as a combination of text and diagrams. Tasks were completed quicker with fewer errors. One major factor is that these types of tasks do not require learning or memorization. The goal for the instruction designer is to create diagrammatic instructions in accordance with Carroll's minimalist principles (1990) as well as verifying that each step occurs in either an internal or external representation (Zhang, 1997). Contrary to what is presented in the literature, this series of experiments provides evidence that if the diagrams are well designed they can be perceived, understood, and performed quicker than the same information in a text and diagram format.

Verbal Complement Clauses: A Minimalist Study of Perception Constructions (review)

Reviewed by: Verbal complement clauses: A minimalist study of perception constructions by Claudia Felser Javier Gutiérrez-Rexach Verbal complement clauses: A minimalist study of perception constructions. By Claudia Felser. (Linguistik actuell/linguistics today 25.) Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1999. Pp. xiv, 278. Perception verbs and sentences have been often studied from a philosophical perspective and a logical point of view by authors such as Jaako Hintikka, Fred Dretske, and Jon Barwise. The study of the syntactic properties of this class of constructions has proven more elusive despite the fact that they have been the focus of attention in transformational grammar since the standard model. Nevertheless, recent developments in generative syntax in general, and in the minimalist program in particular, such as the VPinternal subject hypothesis and the expansion of the category system with the postulation of new functional [End Page 639] projections, have allowed for a new outlook on these constructions. There are two main types of perception complements. When the verb selects a bare infinitive (without a subject) or a participial complement, it induces a direct perception interpretation. When the perception verb is followed by a finite clause or a full infinitive, the associated interpretation is of indirect perception, in Fred Dretske’s terminology (Seeing and knowing, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967). Direct perception constructions require direct physical perception of the perceived event whereas indirect perception constructions normally describe the conclusion that the speaker has arrived at on the basis of what he perceived. Claudia Felser focuses on the first class of constructions and proposes a minimalist analysis which integrates syntactic and semantic concerns. She studies the general conditions under which verbal complements are licensed and provides an explanation for their limited distribution. In the first chapter of the book, F introduces the key concepts of the syntactic framework she adopts. In Ch. 2, she overviews the syntactic and semantic properties of nonfinite perception complements in English, especially with respect to the relationship between bare infinitives and participial complements. The third chapter addresses previous analyses of verbal small clauses. The author presents an alternative in which direct perception complements are treated as maximal projections of the functional head aspect. Bare infinitive and participial complements differ only with respect to the value of the aspectual feature [+/− progressive] located in aspect. Ch. 4 presents the main hypothesis of the book, what F calls the ‘event control hypothesis’. According to this hypothesis, verbs that express direct sensory perception behave as a specific type of control predicate. What distinguishes these verbs from subject or object control verbs, such as promise and persuade, is that the control relation is established between two event arguments. F claims that the syntactic and semantic properties of this construction follow from the interaction between the lexical properties of perception verbs and minimalist principles. For example, perception verbs semantically select an individual or a proposition. In their stage-level use, perception verbs select events, whereas in their individual-level use they select propositional complements. This avoids the need to invoke a separate mechanism of c-selection. In the final chapter, the author examines the crosslinguistic validity of her analysis. She concludes that there are two groups of languages. In the first group, which includes English, German, Dutch, and French, direct perception complements are realized as aspectual phrases. In the second group, comprised by Southern Romance languages, such as Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, these complements are realized as projections of a temporal head. Several properties are shown to follow from this contrast, which corresponds to the fact that in the languages belonging to the second group the infinitival suffix is actually a tense inflection projecting a tense phrase. To conclude, this book is an important contribution to the study of the properties of perception verbs at the syntax/semantics interface. The ideas presented by F, in a careful, elegant, and detailed manner, will probably be also influential in the current theoretical debate concerning the comprehensive theory of the syntax of tense and aspect, and its cross-linguistic repercussions. Javier Gutiérrez-Rexach Ohio State University Copyright © 2001 Linguistic Society of America

Demonstrative determiners and operators: The case of Greek

This paper offers a new account of the different positions Greek demonstratives can occupy within DP. Building on work by Campbell (1996), Brugé (1996) and Giusti (1997), I assume that while sometimes demonstratives are merged low and subsequently move to SpecDP, they sometimes stay in situ. Departing from views of the above researchers, I furthermore argue that — at least in Greek — demonstratives in SpecDP have clear semantic properties that distinguish them from those in situ and that word order variations of the in-situ position can be independently accounted for, once the option of movement of N to Num is taken into consideration. Moreover, based on additional evidence from Northern Greek, Catalan, Romanian and Macedonian, I distinguish between demonstrative operators and deictic determiners: demonstrative operator movement is parallel to wh-movement, as in Horrocks and Stavrou (1987), triggered by features of deictic determiners; the possibility of a language possessing only deictic determiners (like this and that) is also accommodated. Finally, a correlation between morphological visibility and strength is attempted in the spirit of Thráinsson's (1996) Real Minimalist Principle.

Architectes et architecture dans la littérature française . Travaux de littérature publiés par ADIREL, XII (Actes du colloque international d'octobre 1997, en Sorbonne) (review)

Book Reviews In contrast, Small Worlds proposes anodier world or two, which are related. One concerning aesthetic considerations, which are, of course, not new to literary criticism, but which have been quite forgotten in the current theoretical stream. The odier presents a delightful body of works still quite unknown on this side of die Atlantic. Inspired by similar phenomena in music and the plastic arts, die book brings out what could only be called a tendency in contemporary French literature : minimalism. This is clearly not a new literature, the way the new novel or modem poetry were "new," but a general aspect, a general effort, on the part of the writer, characterized by "smallness and simplicity, a reduction of means (and the resulting amplification of effect), immediacy , directness, clarity, repetition, symmetry and playfulness" (Jacket, 2). It is sparse, detached, sometimes deadpan, oblique, elliptical, relatively plotless and deptiiless. That is to say diat the literature in question is very much at die edge of the non-literary and that it would take a very small thing indeed, an imperceptible wrong dosage of one factor or another, a slight exaggeration here or a too strong understatement there, to transform the work from minimalist to trivial. But what firmly grounds all die works Motte presents (he has chapters on Edmond Jabès, Hervé Guibert, Annie Emaux, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Marie Redonnet, Jean Echenoz, Olivier Targowla, Patrick Roegiers, Jacques Jouet and Emmanuele Bernheim) on die side of the literary is a kind of knotting of die formal aspect widi die actual story being told. For each of diese texts tells a story which at the same time tells die story of its own writing and/or reading. A small example : in Emmanuele Bernheim's Sa Femme, Claire falls in love with her patient, Thomas, a married man. She discovers diat he was pretending to be married and immediately loses interest, turning her attention to another of her patients, after verifying that he is, in fact, married. Keeping with die minimalist principle, die plot is banal. But die novel isn't. As Motte reads it, it becomes clear diat it is also a fable of storytelling and a fable of reading. The supposed wife ("sa femme") is die motor of die fiction (and, perhaps, symbolically of all fiction): as Claire discovers that she doesn't exist, she disposes of Thomas to find another motor, real this time, to allow Bernheim to continue her fiction. Just as readers read and use a book to satisfy tiieir own need for fiction, and then dispose of it to move on to die next. In a word (small), this book, just like the books it treats, should have an increasingly amplified effect. At least, that's what mis reviewer hopes. Sydney Levy University of California, Santa Barbara Architectes et architecture dans la littérature française. Travaux de littérature publiés par ADIREL, XII (Actes du colloque international d'octobre 1997, en Sorbonne). Directrice scientifique , Madeleine Bertaud. Paris: Klincksieck, 1999. Pp. 462. 330FF. The 33 articles in this rewarding interdisciplinary dialogue range from the Middle Ages to the twentiedi century. Rather dian give a cursory notice of each contribution, it seems prudent to make a subjective choice in an attempt to communicate the flavor of what must have been an exceedingly stimulating colloquium. But it will be important for any reader to begin with the Conclusions of Madeleine Bertaud (441-46) where she judiciously outlines what could have been and what was actually realized. Clearly, the attention to space and place, to die city, and to die public and private spheres diat has preoccupied die humanities and die social sciences—especially geography—in die 1990s explains die timeliness of this volume. I would also urge the reader to stop next at Phillipe Hamon's text, "Littérature et architecture: divisions et distinctions" (313-21), which offers die tiieoretical basis for die rest of die volume. Section I ("Le Crayon et Ia plume") begins with an elucidation of the oft-mentioned but little-analyzed relationship between die architect Philibert De L'Orme and François Rabelais. Yves Pauwels shows that the two share a common status as founders of...

Minimalism beyond computer documentation

Looks at the application of minimalist principles in technical documentation.

Ten misconceptions about minimalism

We describe ten common misconceptions about the minimalist approach to documentation design. For each, we analyze how the misconception arises from plausible interpretations of minimalist principles and heuristics. We then clarify how each misconception deviates from minimalism, as we understand it. Analysis and discussion of creative elaborations of minimalism-including "misconceptions"-can promote a sharper concept of what minimalism is.

Assessment of the minimalist approach to computer user documentation

The minimalist approach (Carroll, 1990a) advocates the development of a radically different type of manual when compared to a conventional one. For example, the manual should proceed almost directly to procedural skills development rather than building a conceptual model first. It ought to focus on authentic tasks practised in context, as opposed to mock exercises and isolated practice. In addition, it should stimulate users to exploit their knowledge and thinking, as opposed to imposing the writer's view and discussing everything that users should see or know. In the first part of the paper the construction of a tutorial based on the minimalist principles is described. A parallel is drawn with constructivism with which minimalism shares important notions of instruction. In the second part, an experiment is described in which the minimal manual was tested against a conventional one. The outcome favoured the new manual. For example, minimal manual users completed about 50% more tasks successfully on a performance test and displayed significantly more self-reliance (e.g. more self-initiated error-recoveries, and fewer manual consultations).

The role of balloon help

Balloon Help, which is becoming standard in the Macintosh world, enables the user to display brief annotations of interface objects by passing the pointer (cursor) over those objects. This investigation explains the operation of Balloon Help, presents the theoretical and empirical rationale for Balloon Help, assesses its value in supporting both exploration of an interface and task-focused behavior, considers its relationship with other forms of help, and evaluates some possible modifications of Balloon Help. Balloon Help is viewed as a successful implementation of minimalist principles that nevertheless needs to be supplemented by other forms of documentation.