Fourth generation videotex

The term videotex is deliberately used in this paper in place of the more usual word in the United Kingdom — viewdata. The meaning of the latter is probably best summarised in the phrase ‘text on screen’. This tends to lead to an attitude which positions the technology in a restricted area, that of information presentation. This then forces discussion on futures into matters of display protocol and graphics standards. Whilst these matters are relevant and are of importance in some situations, when videotex is seen as an approach to interactive communication with applications such an attitude is seen to be unnecessarily restrictive.