
How Xanadu Works: technical overview - blasdel
http://dubinko.info/blog/2009/11/22/how-xanadu-works/
======
mojonixon
Wired had a long but interesting article about Xanadu back in 1995:
[http://www.wired.com/wired/archive//3.06/xanadu.html?person=...](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive//3.06/xanadu.html?person=ted_nelson&topic_set=wiredpeople)
In many ways the story of Xanadu is sad and depressing.

Of course, Xanadu is (or would be) a digital remake of Vannevar Bush's memex:
<http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush> Frankly, I'm not sure Ted Nelson
has added much to the original concept with Xanadu.

You can download Xanadu(R) Space(TM), a user interface demo, from here:
<http://xanarama.net/> Windows only, but I got it to work in WINE. Ted Nelson
really likes his trademarks, probably because it's as tangible as Xanadu has
become after 40 years.

------
AndrewDucker
_We may have gotten ourselves into a mess with the architecture of the present
web, but even so, Nelson’s vision will keep us aspiring toward something
better._

No, no, no! The last thing I want is something more Xanadu-like, where
everything costs, it's all centrally controlled and all documents are
transcluded from each other. The web is, IMHO, a vastly superior idea
_because_ of its simplicity and openness.

------
zandorg
I worked with Ted for a few years on and off on Zigzag. He's hard to work
with, but the rewards (like free dinners in restaurants, free candy, priceless
signed copies of all his books, and high table dinners at Oxford), make up for
the 'difficult' coding (which isn't that difficult).

Also, I have a PDF of an interview with Ted (which a guy sent me and is
incredibly rare) in a 1991 magazine founded by Louis Rossetto (of Wired fame),
where Ted chats openly to Louis about Zigzag, a big contrast to the demolition
piece in Wired a few years later. I might post this to my website and post a
link to HN.

~~~
nailer
Are you Andrew Pam by chance?

~~~
zandorg
Nope! I know Andrew though. Overall, I hardly got any public credit from Ted
for my work, but never mind, that's not why I did it, and he has to prioritize
who to credit when everyone chips in a little.

