5.0488 Rs: On Hypertext (2/49)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Fri, 29 Nov 1991 16:56:15 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0488. Friday, 29 Nov 1991.
(1) Date: Wed, 27 Nov 91 21:11:32 EST (39 lines)
From: raskin@j.cc.purdue.edu (Victor Raskin)
Subject: HyperText
(2) Date: 28 Nov 91 23:20:00 EST (10 lines)
From: "DAVID STUEHLER" <stuehler@apollo.montclair.edu>
Subject: Philosophy of Hypertext
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 91 21:11:32 EST
From: raskin@j.cc.purdue.edu (Victor Raskin)
Subject: HyperText
In connection and in agreement with W. McCarty's thoughts on HyperText
in 5-0484 on November 27, 1991, I also think that HyperText is a
convenience but not a major advance in human thought. I respect and
use HyperCard on the Macintosh, most recently to develop a tutorial on
semantics and pracgmatics for introductory and advanced courses (it
will be demonstrated at LSA in Philadelphia in January), but in my
article "Naturalizing the computer: English online" in Myron Tuman
(ed.), LITERACY ONLINE: THE PROMISE (AND PERIL) OF READING AND WRITING
WITH COMPUTERS, about to come out with University of Pittsburgh Press,
I also refer to the perennial complexity and inherent non-linearity of
human thought and narrative, both predating HyperText by milennia. It
is, of course, true that HyperCard makes the linkages explicit. It is,
however, the writer who has to think them up and formulate them first,
before HyperText is implemented. I suspect, and so apparently does Dr.
McCarty, that some naive people believe that HyperText is capable of
doing all that by itself. Alevay, as they say in Hebrew, or I wish it
were so!
I am also saying there, heretically for some, that there is nothing
qualitatively new in either promise or peril brought about by the
advent of the computer. I characterize my own position as "party
pooping" (still not censored out in the page proofs), and I am a very
enthusiastic, active, and reasonably proficient and versatile computer
user, but if you'd rather share in the excitement of the new tool just
ignore my article in the volume and read all the others. Incidentally,
they are superb.
--
Victor Raskin raskin@j.cc.purdue.edu
Professor of English and Linguistics (317) 494-3782
Chair, Interdepartmental Program in Linguistics 494-3780 fax
Coordinator, Natural Language Processing Laboratory
Purdue University
W. Lafayette, IN 47907 U.S.A.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------15----
Date: 28 Nov 91 23:20:00 EST
From: "DAVID STUEHLER" <stuehler@apollo.montclair.edu>
Subject: Philosophy of Hypertext
Willard, can you supply us with your catalog of subtle and effective
proto-hypertextual techniques so that we can evaluate your interesting
hypothesis?
Dave Stuehler