Encapsulation and information hiding as the keys to enhanced hypermedia development and maintenance

This paper presents a solution to the maintenance problem in hypermedia by applying object-oriented techniques to both the hypermedia data model and the hypermedia system’s actual implementation. First, the primary concepts of the “MESH” (Maintainable, End user friendly, Structured Hypermedia) approach are discussed briefly. These consist of a conceptual data model, a navigation paradigm and an implementation framework. Thereafter, it is shown how the object-oriented concepts of encapsulation and information hiding result in a hypermedia system consisting of self-contained,