Link vs Hyperlink

[JohnW]

What, if any, is the difference between a link and a hyperlink?

 

[Mark Parnell]

What, if any, is the difference between a link and a hyperlink?

The letters h-y-p-e-r. ;-)

Seriously though - in what context? On a web page?

IMO *hyperlinks* would be the links on a page that you follow to get to
another file (e.g. another web page, image, video, etc.). *Links* are
any link at all to another file - this includes hyperlinks, but would
also include things like <link> elements - to stylesheets and
next/previous page etc. Can't think of any other examples off the top of
my head, but I'm sure there are plenty.

HTH

BTW: Your .sig delimiter is broken. It should be two dashes then a
space, not three dashes.

 

[Neredbojias]

With neither quill nor qualm, JohnW quothed:

What, if any, is the difference between a link and a hyperlink?

Valium.

 

[Toby Inkster]

What, if any, is the difference between a link and a hyperlink?

The chain attached to a ship's anchor isn't made of hyperlinks.

 

[dorayme]

The chain attached to a ship's anchor isn't made of hyperlinks.

But... it could be.... at a stretch...

dorayme

 

[Andy Dingley]

What, if any, is the difference between a link and a hyperlink?

1. A terminology question. There is no formal difference.

2. I don't know. This is bugging me now - I have a surprisingly large
library of pre-web academic publications on hypertext and in not one of
them can I find the term "hyperlink". However I also can't date the
first use of this term.

TBL's famous "first web page" of November 1990 talks about "hypertext
links", not hyperlinks.
(ref Sean Palmer's http://infomesh.net/html/history/early/)

The etymology of hyperlink is clearly "hypertext link", i.e. links
between hypertext pages. It does _not_ imply some "hyper" form of
existing links in hypertext systems. It has been suggested that
hyperlinks were a development of links already existing in hypertext
systems, but they were extended to link between pages rather than just
within a page (this is clearly false as it's pretty much the definition
of hypertext that it can link multiple documents). It has also been
suggested that hyperlinks were the first links that could bridge
heterogeneous systems. This is refuted in Roy Rada's "Hypertext: from
text to expertext" (Mc Graw Hill, 1991) which includes many example sof
cross-system linking in flat namespaces yet never mentions hyperlinks.
This is itself a fascinating read - a summary of state-of-the-art in
pre-web hypertext, completely missing the newly appeared web (and pretty
much ignoring the internet and gopher, which is less excusable).

 

[JohnW]

1. A terminology question. There is no formal difference.

2. I don't know. This is bugging me now - I have a surprisingly large
library of pre-web academic publications on hypertext and in not one of
them can I find the term "hyperlink". However I also can't date the
first use of this term.

TBL's famous "first web page" of November 1990 talks about "hypertext
links", not hyperlinks.
(ref Sean Palmer's http://infomesh.net/html/history/early/)

The etymology of hyperlink is clearly "hypertext link", i.e. links
between hypertext pages. It does _not_ imply some "hyper" form of
existing links in hypertext systems. It has been suggested that
hyperlinks were a development of links already existing in hypertext
systems, but they were extended to link between pages rather than just
within a page (this is clearly false as it's pretty much the definition
of hypertext that it can link multiple documents). It has also been
suggested that hyperlinks were the first links that could bridge
heterogeneous systems. This is refuted in Roy Rada's "Hypertext: from
text to expertext" (Mc Graw Hill, 1991) which includes many example sof
cross-system linking in flat namespaces yet never mentions hyperlinks.
This is itself a fascinating read - a summary of state-of-the-art in
pre-web hypertext, completely missing the newly appeared web (and pretty
much ignoring the internet and gopher, which is less excusable).

Thank you, Andy. Sorry I got you bugged but I have lived in the
marketing world for years where the choice and use of words is
important for effective communications.

I had almost given up on this Usenet - prior comments on my simple
question were all immature slams.

 

[Safalra]

[snip discussion of the difference between 'link' and 'hyperlink']
I had almost given up on this Usenet - prior comments on my simple
question were all immature slams.

Seems much like the real world to me. You quickly learn who to ignore
once you've been around for a while. Don't give up on Usenet though, it
has a wealth of useful information and advice, one you get past the
jokers, flamers, spammers, people whose English seems to be a
collection of words chosen at random from a dictionary, and so on...

 

[TheWebJunkie]

A hyperlink must be clicked. A link is a call to a server, within a web
page, that is *not* clicked.

<embed src="http://foo.com"> is a link.

<img src='"http://foo.com/foo.gif"> is a link.

<a href="http://foo.com"> foo</a> is a hyperlink.

<a href="#"> foo</a> is a hyperlink.

A hyperlink is usually a link, but a link does not have to be a
hyperlink.

 

[Safalra]

A hyperlink must be clicked.

Only if you're using a mouse. The enter key is just as effective in the
major browsers.

A link is a call to a server, within a web
page, that is *not* clicked.

I think what you're getting at is that (under your definition) the user
can perform an action on a hyperlink to take them somewhere, whereas a
link just refers to another location and does not have to respond to
user actions.

The problem with that definition is that a form submit button then
counts as a hyperlink. I think a better definition would be that a
hyperlink occurs within the normal flow of text (so uses the <a>
element) whereas a link need not (so includes the <link> element, for
example).