New Books & CDF - Computable Document Format
Originally published at A Singularity. You can comment here or there.
Wolfram launches a new document format that puts interactivity as the core concept [Kurzweilai.net]
This is a great example of what I’ve been talking about regarding where books are headed. Wolfram is releasing a document format that will contain not only text and images, or maybe even the occasional embedded video, but actual interactive information. Geared primarily towards business documents, text books, and research documents, the idea could still hold true for any type of written work. Embedded within the text are apps that display information visually that the user can then manipulate to show how things can change. Graphics that actually allow a modification of variables, math equations where you can quickly and easily plug-in values to see how the equations change, and more.
The document standard is designed to make it easy enough for any person to create a document. No need to be a programmer to create the interactive features of the CDF. This is the real novelty of the idea, since webpages and flash have granted capabilities similar to this for years but their methods of creation have a steep learning curve.
If you’re interested in learning more, the below video goes over the various features of the CDF.
http://youtu.be/_eu7oPLm2XA
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