Desktop Metaphor vs. Paper Document Metaphor
Desktop metaphor has some shortcomings. In general, the desktop computer is too big and too heavy to be held in hand as a reading device. A desktop forces the reader to look forward at a screen when he may prefer to looking down at the medium or looking up at it when lying in bed. A reader can not take a desktop to the airport. He can not do reading in a beach or a camp site in a jungle. A desktop has no nice pointing device and no selection device. It has no annotation capability.
In contrast, paper document metaphor is more proper for an active reading machine than the desktop metaphor. It is light, portable, and rugged. You can take your machine (based on paper document metaphor) and go anywhere any time you like. Your friend can borrow your small reading device, like borrowing a book. A paper document is cheap. You do not mind much lending it to somebody or even losing it.
A hypertext reading machine based on paper document metaphor has facilities for other metaphors.
- Footnotes, basic linkage in paper, identify information sources, provide comments on subjects in the text, or links like "For more information, read Chapter I in …..".
- Bookmarks: "I stopped reading here last time". "This page is important".
- Small yellow stick-ons with commentaries and annotations can amplify topics of a book. You can put things like "This is a good point!"; "This contradicts the previous argument because…..".
- Anthologies: a reader can put into his collection one chapter from a book, one picture from a magazine, one table from a manual, and create a unique document.
- Quotes: a basic link type in paper document, which are duplicated in a new document with source identifier to the original.
- Bibliography and annotated references: important sources of linkage in paper which lead the reader to more relevant sources ----- "The authoritative article on this subject can be found in …..".