Foreword

So here i was writing a word or two before the main body of the-Book, which could not be true as its concept appeared to be pre-existing. The term Foreword by rights ought to appear in the contradictionary, as i am convinced that one writes the Foreword after the main drudge and grind of the hard work of writing is done. So let's take on with it.

This strange book was compiled in the hope that i may one day read in it what i need to know. You see i wanted it to be dynamic and virtual, a hypertext. As such it could live and evolve in whole and in parts on various computer systems on bulletinboards and in the present digital venue. An Earth-editor is provided to enable any reader to turn reading into an interactive experience.

Now i have been persuaded, cajoled, cuddled and convinced to provide the-Book in a more conventional form, which can even look like a normal book. Frankly this is impossible. What you do not have before you can only be an image of the sort of book i had in mind. This book presents a string of characters, one after the other, on and on to the end. It is one dimensional. The book i had in mind was after all a hypertext, a fashionable word these days, which means i suspect, that nobody really knows what a hypertext is. To me a hypertext is a multidimensional text, which can be read following different paths, much as one might browse in an encyclopedia. Allowing for interaction, so that any reader can also be editor seemed to me to be a very natural extension of textual communication.