Page 22 - DCAP408_WEB_PROGRAMMING

Web Programming

Notes users to click their way from page to page. Text hyperlinks are often blue and underlined, but
don’t have to be. When you move the cursor over a hyperlink, whether it is text or an image, the
arrow should change to a small hand pointing at the link. When you click it, a new page or place
in the current page will open.
Hyperlinks, often referred to as just “links,” are common in Web pages, but can be found in
other hypertext documents. These include certain encyclopedias, glossaries, dictionaries, and
other references that use hyperlinks. The links act the same way as they do on the Web, allowing
the user to jump from page to page. Basically, hyperlinks allow people to browse information
at hyperspeed.

Did u know? What is the core definition of hyperlinks?
An element in an electronic document that links to another place in the same document or
to an entirely different document.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
10. A website is a collection of ……………….
11. Hyperlinks, often referred to as just “links,” are common in Web pages, but can be found
in other ………………. documents.
1.7 Hypermedia

Hypermedia is a style of building systems for organizing, structuring and accessing information
around a network of multimedia nodes connected together by links (Conclin, 1987). The general
Structure of hypermedia allowed hypermedia to be applied to a wide variety of task domains.
We can distinguish hypermedia systems in two generations (Halasz, 1988). First generation
hypertext systems were mainframe based, text-only systems for augmenting the performance
of information processing environments, storing the whole world’s literature or for supporting
traditional writing and reading. Transition from hypertext to hypermedia took place with the
Second Generation Systems.

First Generation Systems — Introduction

We can divide hypermedia systems in two generations (Halasz, 1998). The first generation
included systems such as Xanadu, ZOG, NLS/Augment, Hypertext Editing System, FRESS,
Dynabook. They were mainframe-based text-only hypertext systems. They had support for
multiple users sharing the hypermedia information network. The main characteristic of first
generation systems is their target task domain and scope. They had been proposed as the
mechanism for storing and retrieving the whole world’s literacy, as a natural mechanism for
reflecting the mind, as an augmentation environment for supporting users, as a replacement of
traditional text writing and reading. They were primarily for authoring purposes and thus
navigational aid capabilities were limited. They didn’t provide any particular mechanism to
extent the environment or to customize it to particular user needs. Nodes were untyped, without
supporting composites. Links were single direction, single destination. The only structure
supported beyond graphs was hierarchical structure. Graphical browsers were non-existent and
concepts like guided tours or metaphors were not used.

16 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY