TheHypertext Editing System, orHES, was an earlyhypertext research project conducted atBrown University in 1967 byAndries van Dam,Ted Nelson, and several Brown students.[1] It was the first hypertext system available on commercial equipment that novices could use.[2]
HES organized data into two main types: links and branching text. The branching text could automatically be arranged into menus, and a point within a given area could also have an assigned name, called a label, and be accessed later by that name from the screen. Although HES pioneered many modern hypertext concepts, its emphasis was on text formatting and printing.
HES required anIBM 2250 display console and a large memory partition on Brown'sIBM System/360 Model 50 campusmainframe computer which limited its use: "Although it was shared with others, it was a multi-million-dollar piece of technology housed in a large machine room that van Dam’s team was able to use as essentially a personal computer between midnight and 4 AM."[1] The program was used byNASA's Houston Manned Spacecraft Center for documentation on theApollo space program.[3] The project's research was funded byIBM but the program was stopped around 1969, and replaced by theFRESS (File Retrieval and Editing System) project.
Ted Nelson claims credit for inventing the “back” button (“undo”) with regard to hypertext, as the Hypertext Editing System was the first system that contained one.[4]
The HES editor was followed by another editing system called theFile Retrieval and Editing System (FRESS).
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