Hypertext Editing System: Difference between revisions

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{{pp-protectedAbout|expiry=2013-08-15T22:33:39Z|small=yes}}:''This article is about the computer technology.|other See [[uses|HES (disambiguation)]] for other uses.''}}

[[Image:HypertextEditingSystemConsoleBrownUniv1969.jpg|thumb|right|Hypertext Editing System (HES) [[IBM 2250]] Displaydisplay console, with [[lightpen]]  – Chris Braun, Brown University, 1969]]

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.

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.<ref name="hypertext50">Brown University Department of Computer Science. (23 May 2019). [https://cs.brown.edu/events/halfcenturyofhypertext/ A Half-Century of Hypertext at Brown] </ref> It was the first hypertext system available on commercial equipment that novices could use.<ref>Barnet, Belinda. (2010). [http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/4/1/000081/000081.html Crafting the User-Centered Document Interface: The Hypertext Editing System (HES) and the File Retrieval and Editing System (FRESS)]. Digital Humanities Quarterly, Vol 4 No 1.</ref>

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. Although HES pioneered many modern hypertext concepts, its emphasis was on text formatting and printing.

HES required an [[IBM 2250]] display console and a large memory partition on Brown's [[IBM System/360 Model 50]] campus [[mainframe computer]] which limited its use: "Although it was shared with others, it was a multi-million-dollar piece of technology housed in a large machine room that van Dam’s team was able to use as essentially a personal computer between midnight and 4 AM."<ref name="hypertext50" /> The program was used by [[NASA]]'s Houston Manned Spacecraft Center for documentation on the [[Apollo program|Apollo]] space program.<ref>van Dam, Andries. (1988, July). [https://www.cs.brown.edu/memex/HT_87_Keynote_Address.html Hypertext '87 keynote address]. ''[[Communications of the ACM]]'', 31, 887–895.</ref> The project's research was funded by [[IBM]] but the program was stopped around 1969, and replaced by the [[File Retrieval and Editing System|FRESS]] (File Retrieval and Editing System) project.

[[Image:HypertextEditingSystemConsoleBrownUniv1969.jpg|thumb|right|Hypertext Editing System (HES) [[IBM 2250]] Display console, with lightpen &nbsp;– Brown University 1969]]

Ted Nelson claims credit for inventing the “back” button (“undo”) with regard to hypertext, as the Hypertext Editing System was the first system that contained one.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Memory machines : the evolution of hypertext|last=Barnet, Belinda|isbn=9780857280794|___location=London|pages=104|oclc=855019922|date = 2013-07-15}}</ref>

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.

The HES editor was discontinuedfollowed andby replacedanother byediting system called the [[FRESS]] (File Retrieval and Editing System)]] project(FRESS).

HES research was funded by [[International Business Machines|IBM]] but the program was stopped around 1969. The program was used by [[NASA]]'s Houston Manned Spacecraft Center for documentation on the [[Apollo program|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 [[light pen|lightpenning]] 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 &mdash; such as `bibliography` and "`this text is a quotation` tags" &mdash; 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, [[SRI International|SRI]]'s mouse,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sri.com/work/timeline-innovation/timeline.php?timeline=business-entertainment#&innovation=computer-mouse-interactive-computing|title=Computer Mouse and Interactive Computing|work=Timeline of Innovations|publisher=[[SRI International]]|accessdate=2013-07-01}}</ref> 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.

== References ==

{{reflistReflist}}

{{hypermedia}}

== Further reading ==

*Carmody, Steven; Gross, Walter; Nelson, Theodor H.; Rice, David; van Dam, Andries (1969, April) ''A Hypertext Editing System for the /360'', Center for Computer & Information Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, File Number HES360-0, Form AVD-6903-0, pages 26–27

*van Dam, Andries. (1988, July). [http://www.cs.brown.edu/memex/HT_87_Keynote_Address.html Hypertext '87 keynote address]. ''[[Communications of the ACM]]'', 31, 887–895.

[[Category:Hypertext]]