Interactive Information Services Using World-Wide Web Hypertext
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A fundamental and important aspect of the design of World-Wide Web is
that information references (currently implemented as URLs) can just as
easily refer to dynamically generated information as static files.
Although most World-Wide Web servers today perform primarily as
hypertext file servers, there is an increasing trend towards more
dynamic information services, where custom documents are assembled and
delivered to a user on request.
The presentation markup and hypertext capabilities of HTML make it
possible to present dynamically generated information in a way which is
both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
Authored hypertext documents can be combined with HTTP based
interactive services to provide documentation that is well integrated
with the application's user interface. Links to appropriate
documentation can appear in dynamically generated pages, and static
hypertext documents can include sample links which invoke queries or
other services.
The map rendering software used by the PARC Map Viewer was derived from
many sources, dating back to a world map browser created by Al Paeth
for the Smalltalk-76 system in 1983, using data from the CIA World Data
Bank map data. The author later ported and improved versions of this
browser to the Smalltalk-80, Unix, SunView, and X Windows systems in
1989 to 1992. Brian Reid provided new map data and useful data
conversion software in 1991. More detailed data for the United States
was obtained from a U. S. Geological Survey CD-ROM in 1992.
Thanks to Dick Greenhouse for creating The Digital Tradition
folk music database, to Dennis Cook, Susan Friedman and many others for
contributing songs, and to the Philadelphia Folk Song Society.
Larry Masinter has helped me to explore applications of the Web ever since
he first introduced me to Tim Berners-Lee and World-Wide Web in 1992.
Above all, thanks to Tim Berners-Lee for conceiving and implementing
the original World-Wide Web system, and spending a month exchanging
ideas with us at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center during the summer
of 1992.
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