The “Magic Browser” derives from two things: “Browser” and “The Magic Browser Tool”.
“Browser” derives from the first concept demonstrator.
“The HNS Browser”, 1986.
This is a screenshot from “The HNS Browser”, 1986 – created on a Compaq Portable PC coded in a version of Basic. It was a “concept demonstrator”. The concepts and ideas included: (i) a simple graphical schema of the human nervous system derived from an analysis of the system – as a map/blueprint composed of the fewest key elements representing/capturing the essence of a system or domain – in this case the human nervous system – as simple graphical symbols, each one a “category” – effectively encapsulating detail; (ii) “browsers” as graphical interfaces (GUIs) for parsing, browsing and the selection of elements of interest (here, with a mouse cursor) for discovery; (iii) “active and interactive” – active element-by-element composition of the schema on the display screen, and interactive display where an element can be displayed by selection of a label from a list and/or where an label can be displayed by selection of a graphical element (symbol). Notice the simple menu design – of the fewest Buttons.
This is a screenshot from “The HNS Browser” – where the “user” has selected the “Interrogate Button” (magnifying glass) which has revealed all the selectable/interrogatable elements and turned the simple mouse pointer into a magnifying glass which can be employed to locate selectable elements of interest: here, both Words/Labels and Symbols/Graphical Elements. [This in fact illustrated Paivio’s Dual Coding Theory]. Here, for example, “Coronal” is the type of anatomical section of the Neuraxis (Brain and Spinal Cord) and “CCG” is the “Central Core Grey” (a category I defined of the Grey Matter (Neurons) of the Neuraxis. This display being interactive where an element can be displayed by selection of a label from a list and/or where an label can be displayed by selection of a graphical element (symbol).
The “Magic Browser”
The ”Magic Browser” was a very small object-oriented HTML multimedia document authoring and display tool for Microsoft Windows. The magicbrowser.exe file was around 289 Megabytes in size – leaving over 1 MB remaining for the storage of a multimedia document on a Floppy Disk.
“Browsing” was the key interaction – think – interest – create – share – browse – interest – select – discover!
Peter Ward
Formerly Lecturer in Human Anatomy, in the University of Leeds School of Medicine; Director of the Information Modelling Programme at the University of Leeds; Hon Lecturer in Applied Cognitive Science in the University of Hull Department of Psychology; Lecturer in Information Systems in the University of Leeds School of Geography.
While in the Human Anatomy Department in the Medical School, I designed and developed a series of concept demonstrators and prototype computer-based information modelling tools and applications with support from IBM UK Education, the IBM UK New Technologies Multimedia Initiative, and Sun Microsystems Distributed Hypermedia Initiative. As Director of the Information Modelling Programme at the University of Leeds, I worked with experts, teachers, students and network technicians from a variety of academic domains and the university campus network (in the prototyping and testing of computer-based information modelling tools and applications with a community of users) including Textiles, English (Victorian Periodicals), Pharmacology, Vascular Surgery, Clinical Psychiatry, Applied Agricultural Research and Environmental Science.
As an academic in the University of Leeds, I became focused on the prototyping and testing of computer-based information modelling tools and applications with a community of users: applications in the education (teaching and learning) domain and in the generic software design, engineering and evaluation of computing on the network, employing the technologies of UNIX/X11 Windows, TCP-IP, (for open systems platform independent applications), games programming (for visual interactive and positively cognitively stimulating interfaces and discovery learning), and object-oriented software design, programming and coding for correct software engineering, clarity and re-usability.
My focus and priority was the exploration and practical prototyping and demonstration of a vision of “computer-based hypermedia”. “Walking the Talk” – pursuing the funding necessary to sustain the IMP Initiative and (unconventionally and outside the conventional academic domain) the employment of the games programmer and his side-kick screen artist, and from time to time writing about the development and testing of the tools and applications and during the mid-1990s showing what was in fact the pioneering work at a series of TOOLS (the Technology of Object-Oriented Languages and Systems) Conferences in Europe and the USA.
The Evolutionary Series of Browsers, 1989-1997
- “The GPE”
- “The Media Language”
- “Paris” HTML Browser
- “The Magic Browser”
- “GARDEN”
- “IMPFW”
A number of information modelling tools and demonstrator applications were designed and implemented between 1986-1997. They all presented as “browsers”.
This is a screenshot from the “GPE Tool” – reproducing the HNS Browser and more.
This is a screen shot from the “Media Language – STILE Browser”
This is a screen shot from “The CLCV Browser” constructed with the “Magic Browser Tool”.
This is a screenshot from the “EFC Browser” built with the “GARDEN Prototype Tool”.
This is a screenshot from the “IMFW Prototype Tool”.
The “Magic Browser Website” was named after these browsing prototypes