Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!uupsi!sunic!lth.se!abblund!nick
From: nick@abblund.se
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: Re: Multimedia, Hypermedia, Hypertext?
Message-ID: <1991Feb08.095703.15644@abblund.se>
Date: 8 Feb 91 09:57:03 GMT
References: <1991Feb04.124036.340@abblund.se> <1991Feb06.095148.27736@abblund.se> <1991Feb7.143917.16336@cbnewsh.att.com>
Organization: ABB Corporate Research, Lund, Sweden
Lines: 53

In article <1991Feb7.143917.16336@cbnewsh.att.com> rkl@cbnewsh.att.com (kevin.laux) writes:
>In article <1991Feb06.095148.27736@abblund.se>, nick@abblund.se writes:
>> In article <1991Feb5.140305.9957@cbnewsh.att.com> rkl@cbnewsh.att.com (kevin.laux) writes:
>> >In article <1991Feb04.124036.340@abblund.se>, nick@abblund.se writes:
>> >
>> >> HYPERMEDIA: Same as multimedia but interactive. Interaction is via 
>> >> associative links.
>> >
>> >	Hypermedia is a method of linking/organizing media.  It does not
>> >have to interactive.  Interactive should describe the relationship that
>> >occurs between the user and the application, not how the application is
>> >internally structured.
>> >

I've managed to find a definition of hypertext by the originator of the
word, Ted Nelson.

From "Literary Machines 90.1", Theodore Holm Nelson:

- HYPERTEXT DEFINED
-
- By hypertext I simply mean non-sequential writing. A magazine layout,
- with sequential text and inset illustrations and boxes, is thus
- hypertext. So is the front page of a newspaper, and so are various
- programmed books now seen on the drugstore stands (where you make a
- choice at the end of a page, and are directed to other specific
- pages).
-
- Computers are not intrinsically involved with the hypertext concept.
- But computers WILL be involved in every way, and in systems of every
- style.

I guess that wraps up that argument. Hypertext (and by implication,
hypermedia) does not have to be interactive.

Another point - hypertext is not just text, it is pictures too. I
haven't managed to find a rigorous definition of the difference
between hypertext and hypermedia yet, though. Is hypertext anything
that can be printed? Is it any media without a time dimension? Can
hypertext include holograms?

Something else which I've wondered about: Does hypermedia have to be
multimedia? Take for example the case of hypertext, with text only for
the sake of this argument. It is definitely a subset of hypermedia (it
is hyper, and it uses the medium of text). But there's only one
medium, so it's not multimedia. Or does the definition of multimedia
include the case of only a single medium?

-- 
Nick Hoggard                                   Phone: + 46 46 168524
Man-Machine Communication Lab                  Fax:   + 46 46 145620
ABB Corporate Research, Dept KLL               Email: nick@abblund.se
Ideon Research Park, Ole Roemers vaeg 5, S-223 70 Lund, Sweden