Issues in Hypertext Interchange
John J. Leggett, Ronnie L. Killough · New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia · 1991
An important area of hypertext research focuses on the establishment of reference models and standards. In addition to defining the essential elements of hypertext systems, these standards can be elaborated as data structures and used as an intermediate format for hypertext interchange. The resulting interchange format is then used by a set of program modules which perform hypertext interchange between existing hypertext systems. This paper discusses the major issues in static and dynamic interchange of hypertexts. Definitions, methodology and goals of hypertext interchange are given. Static issues discussed include: ideal mappings, node size, node contents, multiple destinations, overlapping anchors, link directionality, partial hypertexts, system attributes and other attributes. Dynamic issues discussed include: system support, access to remote systems, identical remapping and partial hypertexts. Practical solutions to these issues are given where possible. A case study discusses the results of a research project that used the Dexter Hypertext Reference Model as the intermediate format in the transfer of hypertexts from Intermedia to KMS. An overview of the Dexter model is given and the Dexter interchange format, an implementation of the data modelling aspects of the Dexter model, is described. Issues and difficulties with hypertext interchange that arose in this implementation are presented and discussed. A list of open research issues concludes the paper.