Hypermedia – Index
3 Systems and People
The concept of hypertext has been around for a long time. The dictionary and the encyclopedia are very old forms of hypertext. These can be viewed as a network of textual nodes joined by referential links. The Talmud, with its heavy use of annotations and nested commentary, and Indian epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata (stories branching off to other stories) are ancient prototypes of hypertext representation. We will review some of the well-known systems which have been implemented and widely studied by researchers in understanding various issues related to hypertext.