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From: welter@ils.nwu.edu (Pete Welter)
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: Re: Multimedia vs. HyperText
Message-ID: <646@anaxagoras.ils.nwu.edu>
Date: 15 Jan 91 15:50:28 GMT
References: <1991Jan15.030539.14709@sics.se>
Sender: news@ils.nwu.edu
Organization: The Institute for the Learning Sciences
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In article <1991Jan15.030539.14709@sics.se> ollef@sics.se (Olle Furberg) 
writes:
> What is the difference between HyperText and Multimedia, and what does
> HyperCard have to do with it?

Hypertext is a network of pieces of text. A given piece of text can be
linked to another (usually) related piece of text.  Readers of a hypertext
document can follow these links through the document.

Multimedia is the use of a variety of forms of media in a single system.
These media might include text, graphics, animation, sound, and full-motion
video.  This allows the most appropriate medium for presentation of a 
piece of information to be used.

Hypercard ties these two together (how successfully is a matter of opinion)
by making it relatively easy to build a network much like hypertext, except
that instead of a piece of text to communicate the information at each 
node,
any kind of media might be used.  This is sometimes called hypermedia.

Those are my definitions of hypertext and multimedia, although those of you
who have been doing it for a while probably have more precise definitions.

Pete Welter
Institute for the Learning Sciences
Northwestern University
welter@ils.nwu.edu