Guide (hypertext)
Encyclopedia
Guide was a hypertext
system originally developed by Peter J. Brown at the University of Kent
in 1982. The original Guide implementation was for Three Rivers PERQ workstation
s running Unix
. The Guide system was also the third hypertext system to be sold commercially, after it was taken over by Office Workstations Ltd. (OWL) in 1984.
Unlike most hypertext systems, the main link mechanism in Guide is based on replacement, meaning that when following a link, the current node breaks open, making room for the destination node. The anchor of the link is replaced by the contents of the destination node. One can close the destination node, which means that it is once again replaced by the text of the anchor. Thus, the basic method of navigation using Guide was the expansion button, in which a section was replaced when selected and in which an expansion would provide additional levels of detail. This allowed the user, whether they were a document author or a reader, to expand and contract a document, viewing the desired level at any time, not unlike viewing methods used in Adobe Acrobat
files. Using this method means that the structure of the document must be strictly hierarchical.
Guide supported pop-ups for small annotations, and so-called jumps, which behave like the follow-link operation in most hypertexts (as in van Dam's FRESS system). The jumps allow for the creation of non-hierarchical links.
In September 1986, Guide was ported by OWL to the Apple Macintosh, and in July 1987, a Microsoft Windows
version was made available.
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...
system originally developed by Peter J. Brown at the University of Kent
University of Kent
The University of Kent, previously the University of Kent at Canterbury, is a public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom...
in 1982. The original Guide implementation was for Three Rivers PERQ workstation
Workstation
A workstation is a high-end microcomputer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by one person at a time, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems...
s running Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
. The Guide system was also the third hypertext system to be sold commercially, after it was taken over by Office Workstations Ltd. (OWL) in 1984.
Unlike most hypertext systems, the main link mechanism in Guide is based on replacement, meaning that when following a link, the current node breaks open, making room for the destination node. The anchor of the link is replaced by the contents of the destination node. One can close the destination node, which means that it is once again replaced by the text of the anchor. Thus, the basic method of navigation using Guide was the expansion button, in which a section was replaced when selected and in which an expansion would provide additional levels of detail. This allowed the user, whether they were a document author or a reader, to expand and contract a document, viewing the desired level at any time, not unlike viewing methods used in Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software developed by Adobe Systems to view, create, manipulate, print and manage files in Portable Document Format . All members of the family, except Adobe Reader , are commercial software, while the latter is available as freeware and can be downloaded...
files. Using this method means that the structure of the document must be strictly hierarchical.
Guide supported pop-ups for small annotations, and so-called jumps, which behave like the follow-link operation in most hypertexts (as in van Dam's FRESS system). The jumps allow for the creation of non-hierarchical links.
In September 1986, Guide was ported by OWL to the Apple Macintosh, and in July 1987, a Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
version was made available.