xanadu intro

xanadu

Xanadu, friend, is dream.
The name comes from the poem (nearby); 
Coleridge's little story of the artistic trance 
(and the Person from PoTlock) make it an appro­
priate name' for the Pleasure Dome of the crea­
tive writer. The Citizen Kane connotations, 
and any other connotations you may find in the 
poem, are side benefits.
1 have been working on Xanadu, under this 
and other names, for fourteen years now.
Originally it was going to be a super sys­
tem for handling text by computer (see p. \% 
and )♦ But it grew: as I realized, level
by level, how deep the problem was.
And the concept of what it was' to be kept 
changing, as 1 saw more and more clearly that 
it had to be on a minicomputer for the home.
(You can have one in your office too, if you 
want, but that's not what it’s about.)
Now the idea is this:
To give you a screen in your home from 
which you can see into the world's hypertext 
libraries.
(The fact that the world doesn’t have 
any hypertext libraries-- yet-- is a minor 
point.)
To give you a screen system that will 
offer high-performance computer graphics and 
•text services at a price anyone can afford.
To allow you to send and receive written mes­
sages at the Engelbart level (see p.J)r'It/6)» To 
allow you to explore diagrams (see p. DM19 and 
P. 1)11.51) . To eliminate the absurd distinction 
between "teacher" and "pupil."
To make you a part of a new electronic 
literature and art, where you can get all your 
questions answered and nobody will put you 
down.
Originally Xanadu was programmed around 
the Parallel Textface (see p. D H ^ ) * But as 
the requirements of the Parallel Textface were 
better and better understood, Xanadu became 
a more general underlying system for all forms 
of interactive graphic environments. Its data 
structure has Virtual Blocklessness and is 
thus well related to the smooth motions needed 
by screen users. Thus in its final form, now 
being debugged, it will support not only the 
Parallel Textface (see p. 5^) )» the Walking Net 
(see p. W 5 | ), Stretchtext (see p. DMl9), Zoom 
Maps (see p. Dtfl3) and so on, but indeed any 
data structure that needs to combine complex 
linkages with fast access and rapid chances. 
Because the data structure is recursively 
extensible, it will permit hypertext (see\p.DHTi) 
of any depth and complexity, and the collateral 
linkage (see p. ^ 5 2 ) of any objects of contemp­
lation.
Xanadu is under private development and 
should be available, if the economy holds, in 
1976. Regrettably, first prices will not be at 
the $3000 level necessary for the true Home 
System. Exact equipment for the production ver­
sion has not been selected. A number of micro­
processors (see p. 4 H ) are in serious conten­
tion, notably the Lockheed SUE, but there’s 
something to be said for a regular mini. The 
PDP-11 is of interest (see p.^12 ); (so espe­
cially is its Cai Data lookalike-- unless DEC 
would like to build us a PDP-11X with seven modes 
of indirect display addressing. Are you reading 
this, Ken Olsen?) And here’s a laugh: a com­
pany called IBM may in fact make a suitable com­
puter, except that they call it the "3740 Work 
Station." So for those customers who want IBM 
equipment, maintenance and prices, with Xanadu 
software, it’s a definite possibility.
So, fans, that about wraps it up. I’ll be 
interested in hearing from people who want this 
system; many hardheaded business people have 
told me nobody will. Prove ’em wrong, America!
Of course, if hyper-media aren’t the great­
est thing since the printing press, this whole 
project falls flat on its face. But it is hard 
for me to conceive that they will not be.