[ih] hypertext, was FTP Design

[John R. Levine]

>> Ted Nelson has been trying to implement his Xanadu model of hypertext
>> since about 1969 when he did some work on a 7090 with punch cards.
>
> Do you mean 1960?  The 7090/4 was pretty well finished by the System 360 in 
> 1964.  By 1969, a hypertext experiment would have been interactive.

Yes, it would have been 1960.  I wasn't there, being only six years old at 
the time, but he told me about it.

> He was an imaginative, counter-culture kind of a guy, but his contribution 
> can't be compared to Doug Engelbart's.

Still is.  He spends about half his time on his grandparents' farm in New 
Jersey, the rest on a houseboat in Sausalito.  Ted was also quite aware of 
the Bush article and knows Englebart reasonably well.

I'd say Englebart certainly built more stuff that worked, starting with 
the famous FJCC demo, but Ted has some amazing if often impractical ideas.

R's,
John