Hyper-G Talk Narrative

Drawings

• datamod.pdf and datamod.ps
  

    Illustrates the Hyper-G Data Model:
  
    o A *document* is the smallest unit of information and may be of type:
      - text   (HTF -- an SGML marked up text)
      - image  (GIF, JPEG, TIFF)
      - film   (MPEG)
      - audio  (.au, AIFF, WAV)
      - scene  (Wavefront)
      - formatted document (PostScript)
  
    o A *cluster* is a logical grouping of related documents presented
      as a single unit. For example, clusters are used to display a text
      and a related image or film simultaneously. Clusters are also used
      to group multi-language versions of the same document; Hyper-G
      clients select the most appropriate language at run-time depending
      on user preferences.
  
    o A *collection* may contain documents, clusters, or other
      sub-collections. They allow structuring of information in a
      hierarchical fashion.
  
    o Hyper-G's *search* facilities allow documents (or clusters or
      collections) to be located via arbitrary search expressions. Both
      attribute (title, keyword, etc.) and content (full text) searches
      are supported.
  
    o From within a document, *hyperlinks* allow local associative
      browsing to related documents.
  

• hgarch.pdf and hgarch.ps
  

    Illustrates the software architecture of Hyper-G. A Hyper-G server
    in fact consists of three cooperating processes: the main process is
    the link server which stores hyperlinks and collections, the full
    text server embodies the full text index and search operations, and
    the document server which stores and caches documents themselves.
  
    A Hyper-G server can be accessed by either Gopher, WWW, or Hyper-G
    clients. Using a Hyper-G client provides you with all the features
    of Hyper-G. The Gopher and WWW gateways convert as much of the
    functionality of Hyper-G as possible into the Gopher and WWW
    protocols.
  
    A Hyper-G server can also provide transparent access to other
    Hyper-G, Gopher, WWW, or WAIS servers.
  

• hararch.pdf and hararch.ps

  Illustrates the software architecture of Harmony, the Hyper-G client for Unix/X11. Harmony's main process is the Session Manager, which starts viewer processes to view or play the various document types.

Harmony Images (Harmony Version 0.84)

• har01
  Opening shot of Harmony, showing collection browser and the Harmony logo.
• har02
  Harmony collection browser showing Graz University of Technology's Information System, TUGinfo. Navigation down from the root collection to TUGinfo usage statistics.
• har03
  Double-clicking on "Sessions per Month" cluster brings up text and graphic of sessions per month on TUGinfo up to March 94. Note how currently displayed document/cluster is highlighted.
• har04
  Search dialogue (note this looks rather different in Harmony 0.90). A title and keyword search has been made in the whole database for the word "grep". A list of 9 matches has been displayed. Note the location feedback: single-clicking within the list causes the collection browser to display the path to that document. You see that "grep" belongs the the Hacker's Jargon collection, whereas "grep(1)" belongs the the ULTRIX 4.2 Manual Pages.
• har05
  Double-clicking on the "grep(1)" document fetches it into the Text Viewer. Fonts, colours, margins, etc. may be changed interactively in the Text Viewer. Note the hyperlink to the "ex(1)" manual page.
• har06
  Harmony Local Map. The local map shows documents associated to the current document by hyperlinks. Since Hyper-G's links are bidirectional, both incoming and outgoing hyperlinks are displayed. By default two levels of link are followed. Here you see other ULTRIX manual pages which are linked to "grep(1)".
• har07
  The local map is active. Here we have double-clicked on the "ex(1)" entry in the local map and now see this document in the Text Viewer. Note that "ex(1)" is also now the current document in the collection browser. The "ex(1)" manual page has links to 5 other manual pages, one of which "grep(1)" has already been seen, hence the tick.
• har08
  Full text search in active collections. Search may be restricted in scope to particular collections. Here, a full text search has been made for the expression "hypermedia & distr*" in 3 specific bibliographic collections, finding 4 hits.
• har09
  Double-clicking on the Kappe reference brings up its bibliographic entry and displays its location in the collection browser.
• har10
  Example of terminal access to an external resource. In this case a telnet session to Graz University of Technology's library information system.
• har11 - Data set about the famous Arsenal in Graz, illustrating Text and Image Viewers. The armoury contains over 30000 weapons and pieces of armour in the original 4-storey building as they were 3 centuries ago.
• har12 - Link creation in Harmony. Simply mark the source of a link and define it to be a source anchor. This brings up the Link Creator dialogue. Then select the destination of the link, and if everything is ok, press the "Make Link" button.

  Links may be made from text, image, film, and scene documents.

• har13 - Harmony Film Player showing a short MPEG clip from the Arsenal. Harmony Audio Player.
• har14
  Harmony Scene Viewer in action. The GlobeSat dataset uses a 3D model of the earth to provide quick point-and-click access to satellite images. The model may be rotated, zoomed, etc.
• har15
  Harmony Scene Viewer. Navigation with the Fly metaphor through a model of the IICM building.
• har16 - Harmony Scene Viewer. A very tidy rendition of my office (!), illustrating the Heads-Up navigational metaphor. Dragging the eye icon turns the head, dragging the body icon walks forwards and backwards. The bottom icons initiates Fly-To mode which enables controlled logarithmic motion towards and away from a point of interest in the scene.
• har17
  Harmony Scene Viewer. Anchor highlighting using red/grey colour coding. The lamp anchor has been activated to bring up a Virtual Reality trip report I wrote. Note that 3D models are fully integrated into Hyper-G just like any other kind of documents.
• har18 - Link creation in a 3D scene. Simply select the source anchor object (in this case the terminal at front left) and define it as a source anchor. Choose the destination and complete the link.
• har19
  Harmony Information Landscape. A 3D overview of the collection structure, supplementing the standard 2D collection browser. The idea is similar to SGI's fusion navigator for file systems, but is applied to Hyper-G databases. One can fly over the landscape, look for salient features, and access documents.
• har20
  Flying over the information landscape to the TUGinfo usage statistics. Flat grey blocks represent collections, flat blue blocks clusters. The tall white blocks are text documents.
• har21
  Close-up of the TUGinfo usage statistics. Tall purple blocks are image documents.
• har22
  Double-clicking on the "Client Distribution by Country" cluster has brought up the text and image documents in that cluster.
• har23 - Inline Images. Small images may be included in text documents as inline images. Here we see a mathematical formula and a set of jet airplanes included as inline images. Inclusion is very simple, just like creating a link.
• har24 - Looking within a cluster. Normally, one does not see into a cluster in the collection browser. The Show Children command displays the contents of a cluster.

  Single-clicking the right mouse button displays the attributes of any collection, cluster, or document.

• har25 - Multilinguality. Hyper-G and Harmony are multilingual. Harmony's language preference dialogue allows an ordered list of language preferences to be specified. The Harmony user interface is in the first choice language where possible (only English and German are currently supported). Documents are displayed in the best available language.
• har26 - Switching the language preference from English-German to German-English has changed the interface and displayed documents to German.
• har27
  History. Harmony's history facility allows forward and backward stepping through collections and documents accessed so far. The History Browser gives an overview and provides direct access to any point along the trail.

Amadeus Images

• amadeus1 - collection, text file, image
• amadeus2 - collection, text file, file browser