Software "Xanadu" that took 54 years to develop was finally released, what is its secret ambition?

"Xanadu(Xanadu) "is a system that began development in 1960, quietly as a deliverable of the project for the past 54 years in the latter half of April 2014OpenXanaduWe released the software called. Xanadu is currently used on the InternetHypertextIt is a systemWorld Wide WebIt seems that it might have become the basic system which constitutes the present Internet in the position of (Web), but development is too late and it is also a dream state. However, Ted Nelson who is the birth parent of Xanadu still seems to have great ambitions.

World's most delayed software released after 54 years of development | Technology | theguardian.com
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/06/vapourware-software-54-years-xanadu-ted-nelson-chapman


54-year-old software project escapes vapor status to take on the PDF | The Verge
http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/6/5787638/54-year-old-software-project-escapes-vapor-status-to-take-on-the-pdf


Mac OS X first demonstrated with codename "Rhapsody" in 1997, the first release of Mac OS X was released four years after the demonstration. Likewise, Windows Vista, Microsoft's OS, was originally scheduled to be released in 2003, but in the end it will be delayed from the release schedule In the end of the 3 years it was finally released in 2006.

Both projects delayed the release and delayed the release of many people, but in the history software development has been delayed as late as "Project Xanadu (Xanadu plan)", and it has been forgotten from a corner of memory rather than making people feel disappointed There is nothing. Project Xanadu is the world's first hypertext project that began in 1960, quietly in the event held at Chapman University in California in late April of 2014 when 54 years passed since the development started Software "OpenXanadu" will be released as a product.

Chapman University, where OpenXanadu was announced, is a historical Christian private university founded in 1861.

ByMark Weston

Mr. Ted Nelson, who is the planner and developer of Xanadu, is a person who made the word "hypertext" which is a clickable character link, which is the current Internet "http" "ht It hits the part.

In Xanadu developed by Mr. Nelson, the text becomes a two-way link when the user creates sentences based on some source. About this systemMr. Nelson went on her own website in 2000"Xanadu may be a perfect document as links do not break with some change.This system tightly compares multiple sentences and makes each text as if annotated, It is also possible to see the quotation source of the text so that it can be a friendly copyright system for both literature, law and business. "

Software released as a project of such Project Xanadu is "OpenXanadu". It is a simple sentence creation tool, with eight citation sources being displayed in the text, and various sources from the passage of the Bible to the Wikipedia page will be linked to this citation source. When you display text with OpenXanadu, it becomes as follows, and the original text is displayed in the center of the screen, and the quote origin is displayed by four columns on the left and right of the original text.


The user does not need to operate the software with the space key and the arrow keys, and operate the mouse. And it is possible to go back and forth between the original page and the page created based on it.

Xanadu is superficially similar to the web of the hypertext system currently prevailing on the Internet, but it is not quite consistent. Although Xanadu had the possibility to defeat the web developed by Tim Berners-Lee, the project did not come in a form quite well, and the web seems to have suppressed the current position during that time.

However, Xanadu's founder, Nelson said, "The Web made the original Xanadu obsolete, the one-way link on the web has multiple problems regarding reuse and copyright, as links are broken "I said in 2004.

ByLefteris Heretakis

Although Xanadu who missed the opportunity to become the Web on the Internet, Nelson believes that Xanadu has the potential to replace paper-like things that have been used for many years, "In the 1980's the Internet hyper I failed to become a text system, but I can still compete with PDF as a digital text format to replace paper, "To stateis.

In 1995, 35 years passed since Xanadu's development started,WIREDGary Wolf of Mr. Nelson wrote an article about Mr. Nelson, among which "the longest in computer industry historyVaporwareAlthough he ridiculed as a story, his ideas themselves have a very great influence and have influenced various things so far, but they have the potential to replace PDF as expected Cow.