Using Hypermedia to Provide Application Support

Avainsanat: sovellustuki, hajautettu hypermedia, WWW, dokumenttien esitystapa-konversiot, CSCW. The World Wide Web project was started at CERN as a means of improving cooperation between different groups connected via the Internet. The format and location of the information are embedded in the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is used in WWW to move different media from server to client. WWW hypertext documents are marked up in the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) making the linking of hypertext documents easier. The present work mainly describes tools which have been developed to provide on-line support by means of distributed hypermedia for the users of the CERN Program Library. It will be shown that constructing an efficient hypermedia server is more than just writing documentation for on-line purposes. It incorporates the evaluation of different document representations and parsing techniques. Based on our study some general conclusions about the advantages and disadvantages of a hypermedia approach will be drawn. Foreword This thesis has been written during a one year's placement at CERN, took up a technical student's post starting in July 1994 with the Application Software group in the Computer and Networks division. I also benefited working in a fruitful environment with skilled colleagues and the latest technology. The work started with maintaining a WWW server and getting acquainted with the current situation in the group. Step by step my knowledge specific in document representations rose, so that by the beginning of 1995 I could say that my productivity really took off. Conferences in Berne, Paris and Darmstadt, which CERN was willing to subsidize, gave me insight in the solutions and technology of this field of science. My work on document conversions was challenging and thus rewarding. I would like to specially thank my instructor at CERN, Dr. Michel Goos-sens, whose way of finding interesting aspects of the work I admire. The motivation I experienced throughout the year was due mainly to his ability to look at things from my point of view and thus provide me with work which was both to my and CERN's benefit. Thanks also to Anthony Osborne, the ASD group leader, for seeing my ambition for the work and supporting me with conferences and language courses. From other colleges I would like to thank Paul Kent for interesting discussions on subjects ranging from computer science to the nature of suit. Also deserving of thanks are my Finnish colleagues, Jari Sulkimo and …