Glossary

Client pull: Also see server push
Constructive hypertext: A term coined by Michael Joyce in his 1988 essay, "Siren Shapes: Exploratory and Constructive Hypertexts," and widely used since then. The manual with the version of Storyspace I used defines it as "a hypertext designed in the expectation that readers will actively revise and extend the hypertext" (Storyspace, 91). Joyce adds, "More than with exploratory hypertexts, constructive hypertexts require a capability to act: to create, change, and recover particular encounters within the developing body of knowledge" (Joyce, 42). See also exploratory hypertext.
Exploratory hypertext: A term coined by Michael Joyce in his 1988 essay, "Siren Shapes: Exploratory and Constructive Hypertexts," and widely adopted since then. The manual with the version of Storyspace I used defines it succinctly as "a hypertext designed in the expectation that readers will explore the document without drastically changing it" (Storyspace, 91). Joyce's original definition includes the important point that it "should include a capability to create, change, and recover particular encounters with the body of knowledge, maintaining these encounters as version of the material, i.e., trails, paths, webs, notebooks, etc." (Joyce, 41). Current Web browsers do not allow one to "save" a particular reading of a hypertext. Such common features changing the color of the visited nodes and the "history list" are nods in the direction, though only on a very rudimentary level. Thus, most "hypertext" fictions on the Web have a few but not all features of exploratory hypertexts, the most obvious of which are multilinear paths through the narrative. See also constructive hypertext.
Fat link: Also called a multi-tailed link. A single link which, when selected by the reader, opens multiple windows. Further discussion is available; there is also an example that can viewed with frames-capable browsers.
Guard field
HTML: Hypertext Markup Language, the tagging language used for formatting text and links on the World Wide Web. There are thousands of sites on the Web to get detailed information about HTML; one of the better ones is this HTML Resources guide at the HTML Writers Guild
HTML Editor: A plain text editing application specially designed for writing and editing Hypertext Markup Language. For specific editors I used, see Software in the Bibliography.
Push/pull: See Server push and client pull
Server push: Also see client pull
Topographic writing
Volatile hypertext
WYSIWYG: Initialism for "what you see is what you get." A computer term in general use for many years, it now comes up often in discussions of HTML editors. A WYSIWYG editor would be one where, as you code, you do not have to see the codes if you don't want to, just the result as it will look in a Web browser. This would make HTML mark-up much more similar to using word processors such as Word Perfect and Microsoft Word.

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Version Notes

Initial release: January 14, 1996
Last update: July 27, 1996