The multivalent browser: a platform for new ideas

  • Authors:

  • Thomas A. Phelps;Robert Wilensky

  • Affiliations:

  • University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA;University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

  • Venue:
  • DocEng '01 Proceedings of the 2001 ACM Symposium on Document engineering
  • Year:
  • 2001

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Abstract

The Multivalent Browser is built on a architecture that separates functionality from concrete document format. Almost all functionality is made available via relatively small modules of code called behaviors that programmers can write to extend the core system. Behaviors can be as significant and powerful as parser-renderers for scanned paper, HTML, or TeX DVI; as fine-grained as hyperlinks, cookies, and the disabling of menu items; and as innovative or uncommon as in situ annotatins, "lenses", collapsible outline displays, new GUI widgets, and Robust Hyperlink support. Behaviors can be combined in arbitrary groups for each individual document, in effect spontaneously creating a custom browser for every one. Common aspects of document functionality can be shared, so that, for example, the same behavior that handles multipage support for scanned paper documents also provides such support for DVI and PDF; similarly, the behaviors that support fine-grain annotation of HTML also support identical annotation on scanned paper, UNIX manual pages, DVI, and PDF.We have designed and implemented this architecture, and implemented behaviors that support all of the above functionality and more. Here we describe the architecture that allows such power and fine-grained access, yet composes disparate behaviors and resolves their mutual conflicts.