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Xanadu Basics 1a - VISIBLE CONNECTION

TheTedNelson3 HN recommenders · 2018–2021
20K views · explainer · evergreen · Uploaded 2018-04-13

Ted Nelson explains the original Xanadu hypertext idea of visible connection, the notion that links between documents should be shown and preserved. He argues that the Web and current document standards lost this concept.

HN commenters point to it as the author's own short explanation of Xanadu's core ideas, usually in threads on hypertext, linking and decentralizing the web.

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6 comments from Hacker News

@shalabhc2018 · in “Tim Berners-Lee’s Solid is a platform designed to re-decentralize the web”

Related, Ted Nelson recently posted a series of videos describing the important ideas on Xanadu, the original hypertext project: [VIDEO]

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@robertkrahn012018 · in “Freeing the Web from the Browser”

Great to see those ideas discussed! It is a little strange, however, that Ted Nelsons ideas around Xanadu and its link representations aren't even mentioned. [VIDEO]

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@shalabhc2019 · in “Project Xanadu”

Ted Nelson recently did a series of videos on the important ideas in Xanadu. Start here: [VIDEO] Also you can buy his classic 'Computer Lib' book here: [LINK]

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@pratio2019 · in “Roam – Tool for Thinking”

That's the first thought that came to my mind. I love hearing ted nelson explain it h [LINK] It is a good effort to bring that concept to life. This video is better [VIDEO]

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@dang2020 · in “Xanaflight: Three Pages”

This is software implementing one version of Ted Nelson's idea of visible connection in text. For more on that idea, see [VIDEO] , which contains beautiful examples.

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@DonHopkins2021 · in “Forth vs Lisp”

Thank you for your kind words, and for asking a great question! My secret system that has gotten me through the coronavirus pandemic is simply an investment in an automatic coffee machine that grind beans and foams milk for me. ;) I use HN search and google site search, copy and paste and clean up old postings, and then check through all the links (since HN abbreviates long links with "..." so I have to copy and paste the full links manually), and I update the broken and walled links with Internet Archive links. I realize some of my posts get pretty long, and I apologize if that overwhelms some people, but it's a double edged sword. One important goal is to save other people's time and effort, since there are many more readers than writers, and I have to balance how long it takes for somebody who's interested to read, versus how long it takes for somebody who's not interested to skip. The new HN "prev" and "next" buttons that were recently added to help make HN posts more accessible to people with screen readers are helpful to everyone else too. (Accessibility helps everybody, not just blind people!) And as the internet has gotten faster and storage cheaper, while the user interface quality, usability, and smooth flow and interactivity of browsers has stagnated (especially on mobile), the cost of skipping over long post gets lower, while the cost of jumping back and forth between many different links and contexts stays ridiculously and unjustifiably expensive (just ask Ted Ne

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