ns@CAT.CMU.EDU (Nicholas Spies) (11/04/87)
Not to slight V. Bush for his theoretical contributions, until Ted Nelson they were largely just that. A True Ted Nelson Story (at least, as I recall it, anyway) Whilst a student at Swarthmore, Ted convinced the Student Council to finanace a student film called "The Ephiphany of Slocum Furlough", which was shot (I think) in 1959. Only problem was, there wasn't enough money to record audio...and some have even said that there wasn't time to write a script. Undaunted, the film was shot anyway with "generic" mouth motions, which made everyone look rather like fish. Some time later, Ted went back for a screening of the edited film "synchronized" with a 1/4" audio tape. The moral? Ted Nelson ALMOST invented vaporware, too! --Nick
viking@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (11/05/87)
At 11:51 pm Nov 3, 1987, ns@CAT.CMU.EDU writes: > Not to slight V. Bush for his theoretical contributions, until Ted Nelson > they were largely just that. I think the point of writing about Bush and being aware of previous hypertext development, is to show that "hypertext" didn't start with HyperCard. You'd be amazed how many Macintosh 'converts' don't believe this to be true! Some systems, such as "Intermedia" at Brown University, are far more flexible in allowing links between various types of documents to be established quickly and easily. You can even link documents of various sizes, no less! :-) The tools used by "Intermedia" allow the documents to exist in a normal Macintosh window, with scroll bars and resizing. This gives the entire implementation a much more functional set of elements to work with. I'm just calling attention to a bigger world that exists beyond the Apple dealer's showrooms and much of the 'popular' computer press. By the way, what's *wrong* with theoretical contributions? Gee...I wonder if anyone could have been sued over violating the "look and feel" of a memex! :-) :-) :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Jon W. Backstrom "Yah sure...we gonna have fun, you bet!" | | Computer Science Department | | Indiana University UUCP: {ihnp4,pyramid,rutgers}!iuvax!viking | | Lindley Hall 101 ARPA: viking@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu | | Bloomington, IN 47405 | | "The world has arrived at an age of cheap | | (812) 335-2849 (Office) complex devices of great reliability; and | | (812) 336-3660 (Home) something is bound to come of it." | | - Vannevar Bush (1945) | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------