readable/writable/feedable The Turing Galaxy tree fiction poetic of links? Machines of Text tree fiction inter-textual links network-culture switching MOOs recursion ... to much! Interface III Manifesto for all cases knowlegde structures imaginary library chunks of information
Now that the Californian Voyager company has published innumerable electronic books (mainly "classical" literature and best-sellers) for the (American) market, the surface with which these books were produced is now available.
The Expanded Book Toolkit is especially designed for Mac-Powerbooks (640/400 B/W graphics, 4 MB) and represents the most successful adaptation of the user metaphor "book" to the computer. The aim: optimised operations for active reading and reviewing on the monitor screen: Searching, marking, noting, exporting ...
The transcription of flowing text into the Expanded Book Format takes place through a simple import function. The following applications of standard book operations are then available:
-through clicking a word, a complex search function is started (display of the found word in extra-window, when possible in context, storable in memory ...)
-marking passages of text by formatting or drawing on the side
-markings through "dog ears" (with commentary) and 4 "paper clips"
-notes in small print on the sides
-transport of text sections to a notebook for complex annotations, which are exportable (including quotations with automatic position display.
Criticism: Toolkit offers authors a wide range of annotation possibilities for their electronic books, which are, however, not available to the "electronic reader" without additional programming in Hypercard itself (no cross references etc. possible, only linear word search). Through this clear distinction between author/reader functions, the revolutionary possibilities of electronic publishing remain untapped; it represents simply an (outstanding) distribution medium for linear processed electronic documents. (needs Hypercard 2.1, minimum 640 x 400 monitor screen)
(The Voyager Company, $ 295; publication licence according to arrangement; about 10 cents per sold expanded book or 1%)
The Voyager Company