Broadening the Scope of Hypermedia Principles

Hypermedia systems have been implemented for such a wide range of applications that one must wonder whether their principles should not be included among the building blocks of computer environments themselves. In this paper, we argue that this would indeed be desirable and present a model on which such extension could be based.

After a brief review of hypermedia principles and the terminology used in this paper, we give examples of several computer applications in which hypermedia already are or could advantageously be used. We then suggest that most computer applications would greatly benefit if hypermedia were extended from isolated applications to a system-wide facility and that this could substantially simplify implementation of new hypermedia applications. This claim is then generalized and it is shown that extending hypermedia concepts to the organization of the computer environment itself --- the file system --- and to the user interface would make computer environments more flexible and easier to use.

We then list the main characteristics of such a ‘hyperenvironment’ and conclude the paper with an outline of its implementation model and an example.