The concept of [Hypermedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermedia) is a bit fluffy. It's an abstract concept in computing and information architecture. It deals with the concept of nonlinear connections of information in a computer system. When you only talk about it abstractly, it doesn't make sense. But when I explain the concept to people using a technology that uses it, people start to understand it. HTML is actually a form of Hypermedia. It's an acronym for _HyperText Markup Language_, and the _text_ part of that is a form of _media_. More concretely, the use of `<a>` and `<form>` tags in HTML documents _is_ the implementation of Hypermedia. Think about it. Your web browser loads an HTML document. That document has links to other HTML documents. You can click them to load other documents, with more links. That's HyperText. That's Hypermedia. It's a cool concept, isn't it? You have all these nuggets of information linked together in a [web](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web). Maybe that concept will be popular some day. # Other uses of HyperText in technology Despite the concept of HyperText feeling like a core component of information technology, there aren't many implementations of it that are as ubiquitous as HTML. Let's look at some other uses of it. ### Markdown Markdown supports HyperText through this syntax: ```markdown [Readable text](url) ``` Markdown is used in a similar way as HTML: it is transpiled either _to_ HTML by a processor, or an app reads Markdown and formats the screen appropriately. ### Obsidian's HyperText [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md) has a special syntax in plain text that is an implementation of HyperText. ```obsidian [[path/to/file|Readable text]] ``` This looks very similar to Markdown. Obsidian uses this to link documents together to produce knowledge maps. ### Wiki's [Wikis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki), like Wikipedia, is specifically a HyperText publication. It uses an identical syntax to Obsidan above (though it should be noted that Wikis were around before Obsidian). ```wiki [[url/to/document|Readable text]] ``` It should be noted that you can do a shorthand version of this: ```wiki [[Readable text]] ``` The omission of the explicit path means it will look for a path or file with the exact name in the root of of the server or directory. ## Have you found any novel uses of HyperText? I'd love to chat to you about it. Thanks for reading this article, if you'd like to get in touch you can reach me through: - [Fosstodon](https://fosstodon.org/@proteanmachine) - [Email](mailto:[email protected]) - [GitHub](https://github.com/phalt) Paul