Hypertext
hypertext technique for organizing computer databases or
documents to facilitate the nonsequential retrieval of information. Related
pieces
of information are connected by preestablished or user-created links that allow
a user to follow associative trails across the database.
The linked data may be in a text, graphic, audio, or video format, allowing for
multimedia presentations; when more formats than text are
linked together, the technique is often referred to as hypermedia. Hypertext
applications offer a variety of tools for very rapid
searches for specific information; they are particularly useful for working
with voluminous amounts of text, as are found in an
encyclopedia or a repair and maintenance manual. See also information storage
and retrieval ; World Wide Web .
hypertext. Printed literature is not linear. A rich network
of paths exists both within works (indexes, contents tables, cross-references)
and between works (citations, bibliographies, catalogues). To follow some of
the longer paths, however, required intercontinental travel,
until the advent of literary machines. The magic lantern and the cinema spawned
the microfilm reader. Television and the typewriter led
to the computer terminal, which could rapidly retrieve information from distant
shores. Inspired by microfilm, Vannevar Bush in 1945
envisioned a 'private file and library' with screen and keyboard, with
facilities for finding documents and linking them together to form
branching 'trails'. In 1968 Douglas Engelbart of Stanford Research Institute
demonstrated NLS, a compute system with many revolutionary
features including facilities for editing non-sequential text. Cinema and
television were the inspiration for Theodor H. Nelson, who in 1974
introduced the term 'hypertext' for linked literature, or 'hypermedia' if sound
and moving pictures were included. He saw that networks of
computers could nurture a worldwide 'docuverse'. His 1980 Xanadu proposal
included a scheme for managing copyright and payments.
Paperback 'gamebooks' for young readers, such as the Fighting Fantasy series
edited by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, flourished in the
1980s. These showed the influence of computer games such as The Adventure and
were essentially hypertext stories in print. In 1987
Apple Computer released HyperCard, a hypertext reading and authoring programme.
The world community of hypertext readers and authors expanded rapidly. Other
notable pre-1990 hypertext systems include Intermedia, developed
at Brown University; Guide, from Owl International; and NoteCards,from Xerox
Corporation. More recently, millions have used Windows
help, a simple hypertext system delivered with the Microsoft Windows operating
system. Hypertext or hypermedia are the basis of most
computer-based learning materials. The World Wide Web, invented in 1990,
realized much of Nelson's vision. This time an infrastructure
was ready: universities and research institutes were connected to the Internet,
as were some companies and private individuals. Soon the Web
became the Internet's main attraction. Compared with Xanadu, the Web was crude:
it left users to make their own arrangements for protecting
copyright and collecting fees. But people and organizations happily published
material on the Web in order to spread their ideas, enhance
their reputations, or sell their products. Reference works translate
successfully into hypertext on the Web or on CD-ROM. Writers working
singly or cooperatively have also experimented with interactive fiction, which
permits many different readings of the same story.
Computer games such as Myst (Broderbund, 1995) and Resident Evil (Capcom, 1996)
have complex plots and may be regarded as popular
hypermedia novels.
Bibliography: See G. P. Landow, ed., Hyper/Text/Theory (1994); J. A. Lennon,
Hypermedia Systems and Applications: World Wide Web and Beyond
(1997); D. Lowe and W. Hall, Hypermedia and the Web: An Engineering Approach
(1999).
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University
Press
The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | Date: 2003|Author:
MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER | (c) The Concise Oxford
Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University
Press 2003. Copyright information
“hipertext” Columbia University Press, 2008, 1/12/2008, http://www.encyclopedia.com/
“hipertext” The
Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature, by Margaret Drabble and Jenny
Stringer, 2003, 1/12/2008, http://www.encyclopedia.com/