Hypertext
Hypertext most often refers to text on a computer that
will lead the user to other, related information on demand. Hypertext
represents a relatively recent innovation to user interfaces, which overcomes some
of the limitations of written text. Rather than remaining static like
traditional text, hypertext makes possible a dynamic organization of
information through links and connections (called hyperlinks). Hypertext can be
designed to perform various tasks; for instance when a user "clicks"
on it or "hovers" over it, a bubble with a word definition may
appear, a web page on a related subject may load, a video clip may run, or an
application may open.
Hypertext documents can either be static (prepared and
stored in advance) or dynamic (continually changing in response to user input).
Static hypertext can be used to cross-reference collections of data in
documents, software applications, or books on CDs. A well-constructed system can
also incorporate other user-interface conventions, such as menus and command
lines. Hypertext can develop very complex and dynamic systems of linking and
cross-referencing. The most famous implementation of hypertext is the World
Wide Web.
Ted Nelson coined the words "hypertext" and
"hypermedia" in 1965 and worked with Andries
van Dam to develop the Hypertext Editing System in 1968 at Brown University. Engelbart had begun working on his NLS system in 1962 at
Stanford Research Institute, although delays in obtaining funding, personnel,
and equipment meant that its key features were not completed until 1968. In
December of that year, Engelbart demonstrated a
hypertext interface to the public for the first time, in what has come to be
known as "The Mother of All Demos".
Funding for NLS slowed after 1974. Influential work in
the following decade included NoteCards at Xerox PARC and ZOG at Carnegie
Mellon. ZOG started in 1972 as an artificial intelligence research project
under the supervision of Allen Newell, and pioneered the "frame" or
"card" model of hypertext. ZOG was deployed in 1982 on the U.S.S.
Carl Vinson and later commercialized as Knowledge Management System. Two other
influential hypertext projects from the early 1980s were Ben Shneiderman's The Interactive Encyclopedia System (TIES) at
the University of Maryland (1983) and Intermedia at Brown University (1984).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext
All text is available under the
terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.)
WikipediaŽ is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity.