Hypertext Editing System
Encyclopedia
The Hypertext Editing System, or HES, was an early hypertext
research project conducted at Brown University
in 1967 by Andries van Dam
, Ted Nelson
, and several Brown students. HES was a pioneering hypertext system that organized data into two main types: links and branching text. The branching text could automatically be arranged into menus and a point within a given area could also have an assigned name, called a label, and be accessed later by that name from the screen.
HES ran on an IBM System/360
/50 mainframe computer
, which was inefficient for the task of running such a revolutionary system. Although HES pioneered many modern hypertext concepts, its emphasis was on text formatting and printing. HES research was funded by IBM but the program was stopped around 1969. The program was used by NASA
's Houston Manned Spacecraft Center for documentation on the Apollo space program (van Dam, 1988). HES was discontinued and replaced by the FRESS (File Retrieval and Editing System) project.
Hypertext
Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Apart from running text, hypertext may contain tables, images and other presentational devices. Hypertext is the...
research project conducted at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
in 1967 by Andries van Dam
Andries van Dam
Andries "Andy" van Dam is a Dutch-born American professor of computer science and former Vice-President for Research at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Together with Ted Nelson he contributed to the first hypertext system, HES in the late 1960s. He co-authored Computer Graphics:...
, Ted Nelson
Ted Nelson
Theodor Holm Nelson is an American sociologist, philosopher, and pioneer of information technology. He coined the terms "hypertext" and "hypermedia" in 1963 and published it in 1965...
, and several Brown students. HES was a pioneering hypertext system that organized data into two main types: links and branching text. The branching text could automatically be arranged into menus and a point within a given area could also have an assigned name, called a label, and be accessed later by that name from the screen.
System/360
The IBM System/360 was a mainframe computer system family first announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and sold between 1964 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover the complete range of applications, from small to large, both commercial and scientific...
/50 mainframe computer
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
, which was inefficient for the task of running such a revolutionary system. Although HES pioneered many modern hypertext concepts, its emphasis was on text formatting and printing. HES research was funded by IBM but the program was stopped around 1969. The program was used by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Houston Manned Spacecraft Center for documentation on the Apollo space program (van Dam, 1988). HES was discontinued and replaced by the FRESS (File Retrieval and Editing System) project.
Hypertext Editing System Report (Carmody et al. 1969) quotes
The immediate future of this system will be concerned with its improvement and adaptation for increased convenience. These capabilities include a number of subprograms for acting on various features of a hypertext, and for adding new features to this hypertext editing system.- The problems of file management for multiple interactive users will be tackled.
- Within the contained text it will be possible for the user to designate string attributes, either by lightpenningLight penA light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's CRT TV set or monitor. It allows the user to point to displayed objects, or draw on the screen, in a similar way to a touch screen but with greater positional accuracy...
or typing. Through existing programs, the user may have the text searched on Boolean retrieval functions of attributes or in-line key words (such as "all sections of text concerned with or mentioning dogs or cats, but not hamsters"). Indices and KWIC indices of these keywords and their positions may then be produced automatically (also through existing programs). Attributes may also be assigned by the user to annotations and to labels. Attributes assigned to tags will either be permanently defined within the system — such as `bibliography` and "`this text is a quotation` tags" — or defined by the user. The system-defined tag attributes may communicate with other programs such as a "set up bibliography" program). All tags may be listed and indexed by attributes.
New facilities will be added to provide automatic steering or routing through a hypertext on the screen, or automatic sequence selection during printout. The user would specify which alternative is to be taken by instructions such as "take the happy alternative, when it exists." This would correspond to Bush's trails, and Engelbart's trail markers.
A number of other facilities will simplify and clarify the user's work. Multiple "windows" may be created on the screen, permitting the user to see and work on several parts of his text complex at once, for example letting him copy a text string from one area to another, with both in view.
Since it is rather easy to get lost in a complex hypertext, we plan to look into displaying its graph structure in a variety of ways. A parts graph may be drawn for the simple case, but how does one display several hundred cross links in one area?
- Since an increasing number of user-specified modes of operation will exist, a facility will be created for returning to activity layouts in progress. The exact window layout and display in each window may be placed in a stack and popped on return.
- An extensive graphics capability will be added to the system by coupling it to a "sketchpad" program already developed at Brown University.
- A facility will be created for retaining a complete, or a user specified, chronological trail of editorial changes, and reconstituting any previous state of the textual content for them. This is desirable both for reference to previous drafts, and for return to document states deemed to have been preferable to some present condition.
- We are, of course, keenly interested in finding devices better suited to these uses than the light pen. Such mechanisms as the data tablet, SRISRI InternationalSRI International , founded as Stanford Research Institute, is one of the world's largest contract research institutes. Based in Menlo Park, California, the trustees of Stanford University established it in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic development in the region. It was later...
mouse, or finger-pointable transparent screen will probably improve performance and feel; further design of special purpose text editing hardware is a fertile area. - In the long term, the prospect is that systems like ours and SRI's and their successors will be of growing use in all forms of text handling. Whether such systems will replace the printed word, as asserted by Nelson (Nelson, 1967) is a matter on which we need not speculate. But their usefulness and practicability has been clearly demonstrated.