INTRODUCTION

For This part it would be advisable to provide information on what is a hypertext, that´s why you can read some clarifying definitions.

What is Hypertext ?

Hypertext conceives information as nodes and link networks forming navigable paths that can be toured, returned to and referenced.

It is a non-linear way of presenting information as below diagram. Instead of reading or learning about things in the order that predefined by author, editor or publishers, readers of hypertext may follow their own path, create their own order – their own meaning out of the material.

This is accomplished by creating "links" between information (Nodes). These links are provided so that the readers may "jump" to further information about a specific topic being discussed (which may have more links, leading each reader off into a different direction).

Diagram below represent a simple framework how hypertext links different nodes with each other. The blue document is the comment that a reader may attach on the document he/she read(Just like the green footnote added by the author in some of the webpage in this website to comment some quotation from others). The idea is also proposed by Vannear Bush in his Memex Machine.

Hypertext is text that links to other information. By clicking on a link in a hypertext document, a user can quickly jump to different content. Though hypertext is usually associated with Web pages, the technology has been around since the 1960s. Software programs that include dictionaries and encyclopedias have long used hypertext in their definitions so that readers can quickly find out more about specific words or topics. Apple Computer's HyperCard program also used hypertext, which allowed users to create multi-linked databases. Today, the Web is where hypertext reigns, where nearly every page includes links to other pages and both text and images can be used as links to more content.

The Oxford English Dictionary Additions Series^* includes this definition of hypertext:

Text which does not form a single sequence and which may be read in various orders; specially text and graphics ... which are interconnected in such a way that a reader of the material (as displayed at a computer terminal, etc.) can discontinue reading one document at certain points in order to consult other related matter.

Theodor Holm (Ted) Nelson coined the terms hypertext and hypermedia. Nelson Hilton has a brilliant hypertext based on Ted Nelson's definition of hypertext (from Literary Machines^†). Among other things that definition demonstrates some of the pitfalls of hypertext: readers are more prone to becoming confused and overwhelmed when using it than other forms of writing.

Espen Aarseth defines hypertext as but one category of cybertext. An overly simple definition of cybertext is that the effort and energy demanded by the cybertext of its reader raise the stakes of interpretation to those of intervention. A more expansive definition of cybertext is in the first chapter of the book Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature ^‡.

According to Katherine Hayles hypertexts can appear in the media of both print and the computer.� What defines a hypertext are three central characteristics: "multiple reading paths; text that is chunked together in some way [as lexia on the computer]; and some kind of linking mechanism that connects the chunks together so as to create multiple reading paths."[1]

· Theodor Holm (`Ted') Nelson coined the terms hypertext and hypermedia. In Literary Machines he wrote:

[B]y "hypertext" I mean non-sequential writing -- text that branches and allows choices to the reader, best read at an interactive screen.

I will not argue with this definition here, but I hope it will become clear throughout the book how much more I think hypertext can be....

Hypertext can include sequential text, and is thus the most general form of writing. Unrestricted by sequence, in hypertext, we may create new forms of writing which better reflect the structure of what we are writing about; and readers, choosing a pathway, may follow their interests or current line of thought in a way heretofore considered impossible.

· The Oxford English Dictionary Additions Series includes this definition of 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.

The prefix hyper- (comes from the Greek prefix "υπερ-" and means "over" or "beyond") signifies the overcoming of the old linear constraints of written text. The term "hypertext" is often used where the term hypermedia might seem appropriate. In 1992 Ted Nelson - who coined both terms in 1965 - wrote:

By now the word "hypertext" has become generally accepted for branching and responding text, but the corresponding word "hypermedia," meaning complexes of branching and responding graphics, movies and sound - as well as text - is much less used. Instead they use the strange term "interactive multimedia" - four syllables longer, and not expressing the idea that it extends hypertext. - Nelson, Literary Machines 1992