Multimedia and Hyper-G

Hyper-G is an exciting new technology being developed in Graz, Austria, at Graz University of Technology and the Institute for HyperMedia Systems of Joanneum Research, with aid from many other organizations all over the world. It’s called a second-generation networked hypermedia information system that is compatible with other network protocols, such as http. It offers highly robust hyperlink consistency, especially with multimedia documents, with a UNIX-like security system and gateways to the World Wide Web. It’s possible in the future that Hyper-G and HyTime technologies will operate together cooperatively on the Web through a single browser. Right now, Amadeus and Harmony (the Hyper-G browsers for the Windows and UNIX platforms, respectively) do not support full-blown SGML or HyTime, but they do provide access to HTML resources on the Web.

Multimedia content will become even more important as SGML becomes more popular and as bandwidth increases on the Net. HyTime will become less private, and the price of HyTime applications will drop as demand for them encourages more developers to add to the supply of HyTime applications. Maybe HyTime and Java will even cooperate. Innovation in this area could be fruitful. The standardization that HyTime offers might add more universality to Java applications.

From Here…

You have learned about the history of SGML on the World Wide Web and why SGML has a reputation as being inaccessible and arcane. You saw some of the newly available SGML sources. You also have an idea what the future of the Web holds for SGML.

For more information, refer to the following:

•  Chapter 19, “Should You Upgrade to SGML?” discusses the pros and cons of developing documents under other DTDs.

•  Chapter 20, “Practicalities of Working with SGML on the Web,” talks about what you have to do when you become part of the dedicated SGML frontier; it covers tools, planning, and the flexibility necessary for maintaining an SGML Web site.

•  Chapter 21, “Integrating SGML and HTML Environments,” discusses compromises and complications involved in creating SGML documents for the World Wide Web; it talks about tools for authoring SGML Web pages.

•  Chapter 22, “Developing for the World Wide Web,” talks at length about the origins and the destiny of SGML on the World Wide Web; it offers advice on how to add real value to the Web by creating SGML pages.

•  Part VII, “SGML Tools and Their Uses,” discusses the software and hardware necessary to author SGML documents for your enterprise.

•  Part VIII, “Becoming an Electronic Publisher,” explains some of the mysteries of the information revolution.