Editing Project Xanadu (section)

=== 1970s ===
Ted Nelson published his ideas in his 1974 book ''[[Computer Lib/Dream Machines]]'' and the 1981 ''[[Literary Machines]]''.

''Computer Lib/Dream Machines'' is written in a non-sequential fashion: it is a compilation of Nelson's thoughts about computing, among other topics, in no particular order.  It contains two books, printed back to back, to be flipped between. ''Computer Lib'' contains Nelson's thoughts on topics that angered him, while ''Dream Machines'' discusses his hopes for the potential of computers to assist the arts.

In 1972, [[Cal Daniels (computer scientist)|Cal Daniels]] completed the first demonstration version of the Xanadu software on a computer Nelson had rented for the purpose, though Nelson soon ran out of money.  In 1974, with the advent of computer networking, Nelson refined his thoughts about Xanadu into a centralized source of information, calling it a "[[docuverse]]".

In the summer of 1979, Nelson led the latest group of his followers, [[Roger Gregory (programmer)|Roger Gregory]], [[Mark S. Miller]] and [[Stuart Greene (computer scientist)|Stuart Greene]], to [[Swarthmore, Pennsylvania]]. In a house rented by Greene, they hashed out their ideas for Xanadu; but at the end of the summer the group went their separate ways.  Miller and Gregory created an addressing system based on [[transfinite number]]s that they called [[tumbler (Project Xanadu)|tumblers]], which allowed any part of a file to be referenced.