Document Examiner

The Document Examiner is part of the Genera operating system which runs on Symbolics computers. The system is used to deliver the operating system’s technical documentation which runs to some 8,000 printed pages, and this means that it is one of the first major hypertext systems. While the system contains many standard hypertext features – a windowing system with a node-and-link data structure – information is presented to the user in ‘pages’ which include many of the typographic characteristics of printed books.

Walker, J.H. (1987) Document Examiner: delivery interface for hypertext documents. Proceedings of Hypertext ’87 . University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 307—323.

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gIBIS

gIBIS stands for Graphical Issue Based Information System and refers to a hypertext system developed at the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) with a specific application in mind, namely the representation of initial design ideas. The system is designed for network use and falls squarely within the range of applications which underlie the emerging area of computer supported collaborative work. The gIBIS system is capable of capturing, storing and retrieving informal graphical designs in support of the design process.

Conklin, J. and Begeman, M.L. (1989) gIBIS: a tool for all reasons. Journal of the American Society for Information Science , 40(3), 200—213.

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Glasgow On-Line

Glasgow On-Line is a major hypertext project that has used Apple's HyperCard system to construct a comprehensive guide to the City of Glasgow for residents as well as visitors. The database is designed for public access, and ease of use has been a primary interest.



Baird, P. and Percival, M. (1989) Glasgow On-Line: database development using Apple’s HyperCard. In R. McAleese (ed.) Hypertext: Theory into Practice . Oxford: Intellect.

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Guide



Guide was developed by Peter Brown at the University of Kent in the early 1980s and was subsequently marketed by Office Workstations Limited (OWL) as one of the first hypertext systems for both IBM PC and Apple Macintosh computers. The system has a strong hierarchical data model which can best be described as an extendable scroll. Units of text or graphics of variable size can be ‘folded’ beneath buttons in the hypertext and the selection of these buttons with the mouse pointing device causes the hidden text to be displayed at that point. This has the effect of lengthening the displayed hypertext, which can then be viewed by scrolling. The system is frequently recommended for use with hierarchically structured documents which can be collapsed so that the reader is initially presented with only the top level contents items. The reader can then proceed down through the hierarchy of headings and subheadings and thus sees only the portion of the text which is of specific interest. Other features include on screen notes in pop-up windows and reference links to other sections of the same or distinct documents.

Brown, P.J. (1987) Turning ideas into products: the Guide system. In Proceedings of Hypertext ’87 . University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 33—40.

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HyperCard



Apple's HyperCard was first released in 1987 and is currently supplied with all new Macintosh computers. HyperCard is frequently misunderstood to be a hypertext system but it is in fact an application generator which can be used, among many other things, to construct hypertexts. HyperCard is very flexible, but some features are common to all the applications (or ‘stacks’). The data model consist of a series of standard sized cards which comprise a consistent background but differing foregrounds of text or bit-mapped graphic. Buttons displayed on the foreground allow linked cards to be displayed sequentially according to a ‘script’ with a variety of effects – some of which approach animation.

Goodman, D. (1987) The Complete HyperCard Handbook . New York: Bantam Books.

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Hyperlog



Hyperlog is probably the first hypertext system to emerge from the USSR. It is implemented in Revelation Database Application Environment and runs on an IBM PC/XT or AT under DOS. The system consists of standard nodes and links but the rhetoric of interaction is based on ‘issues’ which users can specify, choose or create, which are then ‘unfolded’ according to the path taken. The application also supports writing and link formation.

No published references are currently available, but interested parties should contact Professor Lakayev, GKVTI, Presnensky Val 19, Moscow 123557.

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HyperTIES



HyperTIES originated in 1983 as a research project at the University of Maryland under the direction of Ben Shneiderman and was originally called TIES (The Interactive Encyclopedia System). The commercial version runs on IBM PC computers under the standard DOS operating system and has a very simple cursor-key controlled user interface. It is expressly designed with ease of use in mind and has had a number of applications developed for use in public places. A HyperTIES database consists of an encyclopædia of up to 200 interlinked files. Only one type of link is supported and this connects a highlighted word in one ‘article’ (i.e., file) to another article. Since the destination node is the article rather than a sub-element, there is an obvious pressure to minimise article length so that link relevance is maintained. The system automatically generates an alphabetical index of articles which can be browsed by the reader.

Shneiderman, B. (1987) User interface design and evaluation for an electronic encyclopedia. In G. Salvendy (ed.) Cognitive Engineering in the Design of Human-Computer Interaction and Expert Systems . Amsterdam: Elsevier.

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Intermedia

Intermedia is the latest in a series of hypertext like systems to emerge from the Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship (IRIS) at Brown University. Intermedia is a multimedia teaching environment and is an umbrella term for a variety of text and graphics based applications. Used in combination, they allow teachers to construct electronic courses which can be explored, and commented upon, by their students. Intermedia incorporates the concept of webs which are sub-assemblies of the total hypertext network. When a given web is invoked, only the links between nodes which are relevant to that web are displayed. This allows different teachers to construct a variety of arguments using the same basic material.

Yankelovich, N., Haan, B.J., Meyrowitz, N. and Drucker, S.M. (1985) Intermedia: the concept and the construction of a seamless information environment. Computer , January, 81—96.

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KMS

A commercial implementation marketed by Knowledge Systems resulting from the ZOG system developed at Carnegie Mellon University between 1972 — 1985. The system runs on networks of advanced Sun and Apollo workstations and has been used for a variety of collaborative applications, e.g., on-line documentation, publishing, and software engineering. The user interface is highly consistent across different applications and comprises a set of ‘frames’ linked in a hierarchical network. The complete command set for database navigation and editing can be invoked via a three-button mouse. The designers claim that the consistent interface, the pronounced hierarchical structure and fast system response time all help prevent the user from getting lost.

Akscyn, R.M., McCracken, D.N. and Yoder, E.A. (1988) KMS: a distributed hypermedia system for managing knowledge in organizations. Communications of the ACM , 31(7), 820—835.

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NLS/Augment

NLS (or oN Line System) is a seminal and highly ambitious research support tool created in 1968 by Doug Engelbart at the Augmented Human Intellect Research Centre, part of the Stanford Research Institute. The system was intended to be a complete computer environment for supporting all the aspects of the researcher’s activities (i.e., text storage, manipulation and access, software design and debugging, and intercommunication.) and ‘augmenting’ his intellect. NLS was intended as a specialist’s tool with a commitment from the user to master unique input devices, and was responsible for introducing the mouse to the computing community. The system is now sold by McDonnell-Douglas and the major user is the US Air Force.

Engelbart, D.C. and English, W.K. (1968) A research center for augmenting human intellect. Proceedings of the AFIPS Fall Joint Computer Conference . Montvale, NJ: AFIPS Press.

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NoteCards



NoteCards was developed as a research tool at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre by Frank Halasz, Randy Trigg and Tom Moran. The system is based on the familiar concept of the card file index which is represented electronically as a set of NoteCards of variable size. Each notecard can contain text or graphics and can be linked to other notecards via ‘typed’ links. Notecards can be organized by way of Fileboxes (groups of cards) and Browsers (structural maps of linked notecards). NoteCards has proved an effective tool for organizing and analysing information since it is easy to construct and revise a variety of possible structures for a collection of low level items. The system runs on Xerox Workstations under LISP and has been highly influential but has not achieved widespread usage except within the Xerox corporation.

Halasz, F.G., Moran, T.P. and Trigg, R.H. (1987) NoteCards in a nutshell. Proceedings of the ACM CHI+GI Conference , Toronto. 45—52.

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StrathTutor

Developed at the University of Strathclyde, StrathTutor is based on Hintzman’s model of human memory. It is a frame-based ‘learning-by-browsing’ system, but differs from other hypertext systems in that there are no explicit links between frames. At the time of authoring, each frame is rated on up to 60 attributes and links are then calculated at run-time using pattern matching heuristics, according to the type of interaction which the learner initiates. A major advantage of the lack of fixed links is that editing of the frame-base is relatively easy – deleted frames do not leave ‘dangling’ links and added frames are automatically incorporated at the next run-time.

Kibby, M.R. and Mayes, J.T. (1989) Towards intelligent hypertext. In R. McAleese (ed.) Hypertext: Theory into Practice . Oxford: Intellect.

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SuperBook

SuperBook, developed at the Bell Communications Research laboratory (BellCoRe), is a browsing system for electronic texts prepared for paper publication using proprietary systems such as Interleaf, Scribe or troff. SuperBook’s aim is to enhance the retrieval of information from existing electronic texts without the added demand of converting them into a specific hypertext format. When the text is viewed using SuperBook, a multi-window display is created which shows the text, a fully selectable contents ‘page’ and a window for conducting sophisticated string searching. The developers concede that SuperBook may fall beyond some people’s definition of hypertext since it makes no pretensions to being a system for text authoring.

Remde, J.R., Gomez, L.M. and Landauer, T.K. (1987) SuperBook: an automatic tool for information exploration – hypertext? In Proceedings of Hypertext ’87 . University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 175—188.

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Thoth-II

Thoth-II, like Document Examiner, runs on Symbolics’ Lisp machines and makes full use of the sophisticated facilities that the interface offers. A key feature of this system is the concept of the labelled directed graph. While the concept is a general one and by no means unique to Thoth-II, it is a design goal of the system that semantic relationships between entities should be explicit. Thoth-II thus represents an attempt to reduce the requirement/opportunity for the reader to interpret the structure of the hypertext.

Collier, G.H. (1987) Thoth-II: hypertext with explicit semantics. In Proceedings of Hypertext ’87 . University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 269—289.

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Writing Environment (WE)

This system has been developed at the University of North Carolina with the specific aim of supporting the writing process. The system’s design has been influenced by a psychological analysis of the comprehension process which assumes that the linear sequences of words and sentences are assembled into semantic hierarchies by the reader and subsequently stored in long term memory as networks. WE is designed to support the writer perform the reverse of this comprehension process, i.e., imposing a hierarchical discipline on networks of loosely structured concepts and then building an essentially linear sequence of sentences. WE includes a variety of ways of viewing and structuring text nodes and can be seen to be closely related to NoteCards in this respect.

Smith, J.B., Weiss, S.F. and Ferguson, G.J. (1987) A hypertext writing environment and its cognitive basis. In Proceedings of Hypertext ’87 . University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 195—214.

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Xanadu

The Xanadu system is the long term hypertext project inspired and pursued by Ted Nelson. His aim is simply to design a network-based hypertext system capable of storing and providing access to the world’s complete stock of textual material (the Docuverse). Nelson has taken considerable pains to ensure that the system is capable of uniquely referencing billions of items, their interrelationships and the copyright issues arising from their use and distribution. A key feature of Xanadu is the fact that a piece of text is only held once in the system irrespective of the number of documents in which it may occur.

Nelson, T.H. (1980) Replacing the printed word: a complete literary system. In S.H. Lavington; (ed.) Proceedings of the IFIP Congress . Amsterdam: North-Holland. 1013—1023.