HYPERTEXT OR HYPERMEDIA?
if the web incorporates so much more than
text, why do I keep calling the web a hypertext system? Well, if
you’re going to be absolutely technically correct about it, the web is not a
hypertext system _it’s a hypermedia system. But, on the other hand, is still
text-heavy, with extra bits of media added in as emphasis. Many very educated
people are arguing these very points at this moment and presenting their
arguments in papers and discursive rants as educated people like to do.
Whatever, I prefer the term hypertext, and it’s my book, so I’m going to use
it. You know what I mean.
THE WEB IS CROSS-PLATFORM
If you can access the internet, you can
access the internet, you can access the world wide web, regardless of whether
you’re working on a low-end PC or a fancy expensive workstation. More recently,
people began accessing the internet through their mobile phones, portable
hand-held PCs, and personal information managers. If you think windows menus
and buttons look better than Macintosh menus and buttons or vice versa (or if
you think both Macintosh and windows
people are weenies), it doesn’t matter.
The world wide web isn’t limited to any one kind of machine or developed by any
one company. The web is entirely cross-platform.
THE CROSS-PLATFORM IDEAL
The whole idea that the web is-and should
be-cross-platform is strongly held to by purists. The reality, however, is
somewhat different with the introduction over the years of numerous special
features, technologies, and media types, the web has years of numerous special
features, technologies, and media types, the web has lost some of its
capability to be truly cross-platform. As web authors choose to use these
nonstandard features, they willingly limit the potential audience for the
content of their sites. For example, a site centered around a flash animation
is essentially unusable for someone using a browser that doesn’t have a flash
player, or for a user who might have turned off flash for quicker downloads.
Similarly \, some pro-grames that extend the capabilities of a browser (known
as plug-ins) are available only for one platform (either windows, Macintosh, or
UNIX). Choosing to use one of one of those plug-ins makes that portion of your
site unavailable to users who are either on the wrong platform or don’t want to
bother to download and install the plug-in.
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