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Revision as of 03:57, 16 September 2004 by Coolcaesar (talk | contribs) (→History)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)In computing, a hypertext system is one which dynamically displays text in response to user input or preferences for purposes such as searching and publication; more commonly, "hypertext" is used to refer specifically to the World Wide Web implementation of documents which include hyperlinks, references to other documents on the system.
History
All major histories of hypertext start with 1945, when Vannevar Bush wrote an article in The Atlantic Monthly called "As We May Think," about a futuristic device he called a Memex. He described the device as mechanical desk linked to an extensive archive of microfilms and able to display books, texts or any document from the library, and further able to automatically follow references from any given page to the specific page referenced.
Most experts do not consider the Memex to be a true hypertext system. The Memex, its creator, and its creator's understanding of the structure of information were all severely flawed. However, the story starts with the Memex because "As We May Think" directly influenced the two men generally credited with the creation of hypertext, Ted Nelson and Douglas Engelbart.
Nelson coined the word "hypertext" in 1965 and helped develop the Hypertext Editing System; Engelbart had begun working on his NLS system in 1962, although delays in obtaining funding, personnel and equipment meant that its key features were not completed until 1968.
The HyperCard application introduced for the Apple Macintosh in 1987 was the first deployment of hypertext technology to the general public.
However, all the earlier hypertext systems were quickly overshadowed by the success of Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web, even though the latter lacked many features of those earlier systems such as typed links, transclusion and source tracking.
Academic Conferences
One of the top academic conferences for new research in hypertext is the annually held ACM's Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia (HT).
Although not exclusively about hypertext, the World Wide Web series of conferences, organized by IW3C2, includes many papers of interest. There is a list with links to all conferences in the series.
See also
- Timeline of hypertext technology and human-computer interaction projects and developments.
- HTML
- See The Hypertext Conferences
- External Link to Original Vannevar Bush,"As We May Think," Article and Memex Animation
Reading
Byers, T. J. (1987, April). Built by association. PC World, 5, 244-251. Crane, Gregory. (1988). Extending the boundaries of instruction and research. T.H.E. Journal (Technological Horizons in Education), Macintosh Special Issue, 51-54.
Heim, Michael. (1987). Electronic Language: A Philosophical Study of Word Processing. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Nelson, Theodor H. (1973). A Conceptual framework for man-machine everything. National Computer Conference and Exposition, June 4-8, 1973, Mew York, NY. AFIPS Conference Proceedings VOL. 42 (pp. M22-M23). Montvale, NJ: AFIPS Press.
Van Dam, Andries. (1988, July). Hypertext '87 keynote address. Communications of the ACM, 31, 887-895.
Yankelovich, Nicole, Landow, George P., and Cody, David. (1987). Creating hypermedia materials for English literature students. SIGCUE Outlook, 20(3).