CONCEPT BROWSER: a System for Interactive Creation of Dynamic Documentation
Ugo Corda, G. Facchetti · Cambridge University Press eBooks · 1986
In this paper, a system for interactive creation and browsing of dynamic documents is described. The Concept Browser allows the user to create a semantic network of interrelated concepts and interactively navigate through the network. Outlines and printed documents can be automatically generated from the network of concepts. The Concept Browser has been designed and implemented in a Smalltalk programming environment. An interactive, window-based user interface is provided that allows the user to browse through and modify the network of concepts. Possible applications for the Concept Browser are in the areas of on line documentation, tutorial systems, document preparation systems and electronic books. Introduction The traditional method of storing information in a printed, linear form as it is done with conventional books has been demonstrated to be inadequate both to represent the complexity of information and to offer quick and flexible access to it [8]. The personal computer appears to be the ideal tool to satisfy these requirements, but a simple computer-based transcription of traditional books is not the best way of taking advantage of the new functionalities offered by computers. The purpose of this article is to describe one experiment in the design of a documentation system that can take advantage of the flexible data structures and advanced user interface provided by a Smalltalk programming environment. A semantic network was chosen as the best way of representing the complexity of information ([4],[6]) instead of a more traditional tree structure [5].