Xref: utzoo alt.hypertext:422 comp.ivideodisc:277 comp.sys.ibm.pc:40316 comp.sys.mac:44692 comp.sys.mac.hypercard:2886 comp.edu:2802
Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!tuvie!ai-vie!paolo
From: paolo@ai-vie.UUCP (Paolo Petta)
Newsgroups: alt.hypertext,comp.ivideodisc,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.mac.hypercard,comp.edu
Subject: (large) Hypertext with Videodisc application: RFC, Pointers?
Keywords: hypertext, videodisc, personal computer
Message-ID: <293@ai-vie.UUCP>
Date: 18 Dec 89 16:30:44 GMT
Reply-To: paolo@ai-vie.UUCP (Paolo Petta)
Organization: Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence
Lines: 48

Our project's goal is to build a hypertext course on pathology for a
hardware platform consisting of a (single-screen) personal computer
system equipped with a videodisc player.

As the integration of the video information into the hypertext document
is central to the project, we are particularly interested in learning
about experience gathered which such recently-introduced hardware
options as the Videologic DVA-4000 card for IBM-PC AT compatibles (a
microchannel version is due Real Soon Now, we are told) and the
(somewhat pricey) combination of the ColorSpace FX and ColorSpace II
MASS microsystems cards for the Apple Macintosh (we haven't had
hands-on experience with these latter ones yet).

Of course, none of this hardware is of much use without "open" software
packages which can be configured to make use of the provided video
managment capabilities. (For one, we know that HyperCard supports the
ColorSpace cards, but we also think that Owl's Guide would conform
much better to our purpose).

Currently we are aware of the "Carousel" extension to Owl's Guide for
the Apple Macintosh implemented at the Pathology Computer Teaching Lab
at Cornell University and would welcome pointers to any additional
existing hypertext packages which allow for the tight integration of
videodisc images into the documents (what about Hyperties for the
IBM-PC?).

Especially with regard to any MS-DOS based alternatives we are
concerned about problems which might arise from the clash of the
"famous" 640KB limit and the sheer size of the data to be dealt with
(the video image data is supposedly going to fill a whole videodisc
side, i.e.: 30.000 images or more, and there are going to be at the
very least about as many "pages").

Of course these performance concerns are valid for any package taken
into consideration: can anyone contribute from experience with *large*
hypertext documents? (e.g.: how does the average access time degrade?
(apart from the maximum seek-time on the videodisc of about 2 seconds)).

Please mail contributions to us, we will post a summary.

Thank you for your efforts!

paolo & mario

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mario veitl & paolo petta,        paolo@ai-vie.uucp (..mcsun!tuvie!ai-vie!paolo)
austrian research institute for           bitnet: paolo%ai-vie.uucp@cernvax
artificial intelligence           outside europe: paolo%ai-vie.uucp@uunet.uu.net