[William Shakespeare, Love's Labours Lost, Act I, Scene 1]
Not only do we all stand on the shoulders of giants, but we all also stumble where giants have already fallen. Thus, for example, most of us have published most of our work about hypertext in the print medium that Bush found so unworkable (see the bibliography in this book, for example).
The Hypertext/Hypermedia Handbook is intended to be a stumble in the right direction. True, it is being printed on paper, but it will also be available as a hypertext (see the tear-out sheet at the end of this book).
Hypertext is an evolving technology. Our goal in editing this book was to collect and contrast as many contradictory views about hypertext as we could. Because this book reflects more than one ideology, it is not ideologically pure.
For example, some authors believe that hypertext should be carefully handcrafted; others think that automatic hypertext generation is the only way to effectively process the large amounts of information necessary in military- or industrial-strength hypertext. Another major disagreement occurs over interface issues. Some strongly advocate adopting and sticking to a single metaphor (e.g., all hypertext should look like a book). Others believe each interface should be custom written for the application and that readers be given multiple interfaces from which to choose.
No doubt some of the approaches described in this book will thrive and others will prove unusable. All that is clear is that, for the time being, no one approach will work for all hypertext authors. It is you, the readers of this Handbook, who will lead the way to hypertext as a mass medium, for you are the ones who will determine where the technology goes.
The body of the Hypertext/Hypermedia Handbook is divided into ten sections:
- The Introductory Section, which includes some definitions and a history of hypertext.
- Types of Hypertexts, which features a debate between text-only and multimedia hypertexts.
- Conventions for Writers/Readers of Hypertext, a discussion of hypertext as a literary genre with a bit about interactive fiction.
- Automatic Hypertext Generation, an explanation of how the new automatic text-to-hypertext conversion systems work and how they can best be applied.
- Designing Hypertexts, which provides authors with suggested approaches to take when designing and implementing hypertexts.
- Licensing and Protection of Electronically Published Information, which highlights legal issues that hypertext publishers should consider.
- Issues for Hypertext Readers, another debate-this one focusing on the dreaded syndrome known to hypertext authors as "Lost in Hyperspace" -plus a suggested cure.
- Integrating Hypertext with Other Technologies, in which hypertext is described in the context of other computer-based information management and retrieval techniques.
- Industrial-Strength Hypertext, in which three luminaries in the field of hypertext discuss where they think hypertext technology needs to go in order to become truly useful.
- The Future of Hypertext, a discussion of the need for standards and of the future promise and responsibilities that attach to hypertext as a new mass medium.
The material in the Appendices includes:
- Appendix A, the case studies section, includes short descriptions of some of the more interesting applications of hypertext technology that we have discovered. These case studies are not merely descriptions of the exciting features a particular hyperdocument has, but are explanations of why and how each product came to be created as a hypertext;
- Appendix B, a short Glossary of hypertext-related terms;
- Appendix C, a list of Suggested References.
The format of this Handbook is, appropriately, nonlinear. If you are not at all
familiar with terms that relate to hypertext (such as "link", "node", "browse", etc.) we suggest that you start either at the Introduction or at the Glossary. Those with a particular goal in mind who are interested in learning about how others solved their information dissemination problems using hypertext should start with some case studies. Most chapters in the Handbook are cross-referenced to others. In the hypertext version, there will be many more such cross-references.
This handbook is the story of the stormy courtship and impending marriage of
literature and technology. It is the story of a technology that is evolving. It is, necessarily, incomplete.
Just one more quote from a giant, and then, we’ll let you get on with the Handbook:
Two Hopes
- To have our everyday lives made simple and flexible by the computer as a
personal information tool. - To be able to read, on computer screens, from vast libraries easily, the things we choose being clearly and instantly available to us, in a great interconnected web of writings and ideas. [Theodor Holm Nelson, Literary Machines, – Pg. 1/2]
-Joe Devlin and Emily Berk, March 3, 1991