The Electronic Book Ebook3

The electronic book is a project which examines the possibilities offered by computers for animating scientific texts. With the advent of the micro-computer, access to the text (textual base), need no longer be sequential. The user of the electronic book can now “jump”, to the table of contents, the index, the bibliography or to links placed in the text, such as, “see Chapter 2”. In addition to these links, the user can ask for the execution of methods (computer programs) attached to the subject of the book. The system connects itself to a series of modules written by the author (concept of “methods base” and “models base”), or to methods available in the machine (MultiPlan, DBase, Lotus, Word, Lisp, C compiler, etc.). The passage from the text to the methods takes place with or without the recuperation of the models. In this way, the exercises, guided examples and simulations are accessible for the enrichment of the text. Ebook3 is composed of three principal characteristics (the number incorporated in the name of the system refers to this point). First, the displacement in a text takes place either sequentially, or by means of references, tables or indices. Secondly, static images are inserted in the text and dynamic graphics allow the visualization of animated sequences. Thirdly, the attachment of methods brings with it the possibility of processing data in order to calculate the models attributed, by the author, to perform sensibility analyses, or finally to create problems representing the reader's individual requirements.