Beyond Node/Link

Later thinking has moved beyond the simple dualism of stable nodes and dynamic, overdetermined links. Halasz as early as 1987 calls for node/link aggregates or "composites" to expand the functionality of hypertext. DeRose outlines an extensive taxonomy of link types as a basis for creating implict (dynamically computed) links. Most recently, researchers have proposed discarding the node/link scheme altogether in favor of a set-based model of direct node intersections (Parunak 1991, 263) or "complex relations" in which the hypertext takes on many properties of a sophisticated database (Marshall et al. 1991).

These developments invalidate any rhetoric based on a simple correspondence of links with transitional devices inherited from print. In what sense is a dynamically computed, implicit link analogous to turning a page? How can one specify a "rhetoric of arrivals and departures" for a multi-user system like Aquanet in which changes can "ripple through" multiple levels of hierarchy (Marshall et al., p.263)?

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