Ramus is a system for authoring (and reading) self-contained non-linear documents, a.k.a. hypertext. As you read, you will see links that, when clicked, will allow you to follow one of several branches through the text.
This version is a basic proof-of-concept that only allows stateless hypertext, the sort you could accomplish with ordinary HTML files. The only addition over the minimum amount of code needed to make it work is a CSS animation library, to emphasize progression through the text.
Notice how the link vanished the moment you followed it. That's simply in order to help guide you a little. Don't worry, if your path through the text ever takes you back to the same place, the link will be available again.
Links in Ramus work a bit differently from the normal HTML kind, but you can link to several fragments at once.
Ramus documents are authored in plain HTML, just like ordinary Web pages. A bunch of Javascript at the end creates the "magic".
If you don't know HTML, you may wonder why place this restriction on potential authors; I assure you, there are good reasons for it.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What's the point of Ramus?
- Frankly? None. It's just that there is a similar system called Undum, which has been gaining popularity as of late, but suffers from a number of downsides in my opinion. So I determined to make another, in the same spirit but my way. :P
- Why raw HTML? Wouldn't wiki markup or Markdown be easier on beginners?
- No, not really. In my experience, people who are baffled by HTML are equally baffled by wiki markup, BBCode and the likes. Moreover, people who do get wiki markup often have very strong opinions on what makes a good syntax. Markdown may be less controversial, but it takes quite a bit of code to parse, and I want to keep Ramus small.
- Why doesn't Ramus hide all links from previous turns, like Undum? It's weird.
- Because you may want to have a type of "aside" link that
displays a couple of sentences but doesn't advance the action.
Those could behave differently... but that would complicate both the
programming and the authoring. Besides, some authors may want yet
another behavior, e.g. to only see the text for the current turn.
It's impossible to satisfy everyone. But the base code is only 40 lines of Javascript. Change it to suit your needs, or ask me for a custom version.