Hypertext
The beginnings of hypertext spawned from the mind of Vannevar Bush, an engineer, in 1945 when he described a theoretical proto-hypertext device called Memex (History of Computers and Computing). Bush wanted to create a device that would make it easier for individuals to compress down books and other important pieces of information. The creation of the Memex system would soon lead to the inevitable invention of what hypertext would later become. In 1963, a philosopher/sociologist by the name of Ted Nelson wanted a way to easily connect content. Nelson was inspired by Vannevar Bush’s concept of a hypertext device that he wanted to implement a hypertext system himself (Hypertext: Wiki). That hypertext system would be called Project Xanadu, which was created in the 1960s, but the use of hypertext wouldn’t be available for commercial use until 1967 when Nelson teamed up with Andries Van Dam to create the Hypertext Editing System (HES). The significance of HES was the fact that it was the first hypertext system that could be available to use on commercial equipment.
Fast-forward to 1978, a computer engineer by the name of Tim Berners-Lee concocted a hypertext database system called; ENQUIRE which would eventually pave the way towards the creation of the World Wide Web (WWW). At around the same time, Apple Computers developed their own hypermedia software called HyperCard both of these served similar purposes, but they each had their own advantages (Hypertext: Wiki) . The biggest differences between the two were that ENQUIRE was able to utilize hypertext in their system while HyperCard was able to render images. According to the History of Computers and Computing website, Berners-Lee was responsible for the inevitable creation of the WWW when he created ENQUIRE, but Tim Berners-Lee later teamed up with a scientist at a company called CERN to create the bonafide concept of the WWW, in which hypertext would still be used.
Since the creation of the WWW or the Internet, hypertext is still being utilized as an easier way to connect information from multiple websites. The use of hypertext has made finding information a whole lot easier by linking websites/webpages together just by utilizing clickable text (Who Invented the Internet?). It may seem as a rather normalized thing because of how often it is used through out the Internet, but it’s important to remember that this concept took decades to perfect to make our lives easier. It’s crazy to think that the initial concept of hypertext was thought up in the 1700s but the fact that it is still being implemented today is beyond anything anyone could have imagined.
Works Cited:
- History of Computers and Computing, Internet, Birth, The World Wide Web of Tim Berners-Lee, history-computer.com/Internet/Maturing/Lee.html.
- This article was helpful in that it pointed me in the right direction as to what potential sources I should look at when researching this topic.
- “Hypertext.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Mar. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext.
- Even though the article on Tim Berners-Lee was helpful, I knew that I needed more of a jumping off point with my research in terms of the overarching scheme of hypertext as a whole. I know Wikipedia isn’t a database to solely base information off of, but I did use it as a reference to look up the other important inventions leading up to the creation of the modern day hypertext.
- “Who Invented the Internet? And Why? : Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, 10 Apr. 2014, archive.org/details/youtube-21eFwbb48sE.
- Much like the first source, I had knowledge of the WWW but I knew that I needed to learn more about it. I was originally going to look through Tim Berners-Lee’s book, The World Wide Web, but I wasn’t able to find a full-fledged version of the book available to me. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough, but I figured that this video would help fill in any missing information.