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    Tangle: Javascript API makes web text interactive

    Tangle: Javascript API makes web text interactive

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    Tangle, an open source Javascript API, makes interactive web documents with text that responds to user input

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    Tangle
    Tangle

    A former Apple UI engineer wants to make text on the web more interactive, so he's created an open source Javascript API called Tangle for making "explorable explanations," which allow readers to modify certain words and see related text immediately change in response. For example, in the sentence "there are 150 calories in three cookies," the reader could change three to four, and the number of calories will immediately change to 200. The math is nothing special, but weaving it into the text gives it a new interface, and makes the document more flexible. In addition, the concept can be expanded to pull information from Wikipedia without leaving the page, or visually manipulate variables in a mathematical equation and see how it affects a real-world scenario. Tangle is still in alpha, but it's a step toward interactive text that goes beyond glorified page-turning in the form of hyperlinks. Working examples have been up since March, so hit the source and check them out, or just download the API and get coding.