texton
nounEtymology From text + -on.
1
A string of text that acts like a variable, from which the scriptons of a dynamic text are assembled.
- A hypertext such as Afternoon (Joyce 1990) will have a fixed number of scriptons (and textons), while the game Adventure (Crowther and Woods 1976) will have a fixed set of textons but a variable number of scriptons (texton cominations), determined by the progress of the play. In a MUD, where other concurrent users can type in anything, the number of textons is not known.1997, Espen J. Aarseth, Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, →ISBN, page 63:
- First of all, reading the whole text is the strongest literary convention, but as was implicit in the earlier discussion, it can now mean at least four slightly different things: reading every texton and scripton, reading every texton, reading every scripton, and taking every given path through the text (i.e. exhausting the variety of paths).2012, Markku Eskelinen, Cybertext Poetics: The Critical Landscape of New Media Literary Theory, →ISBN:
1 more example
- Relative ergodic events are chains of events produced by the efforts of one or more individuals or mechanisms that have limited effect upon the textons or scriptons of a narrative such that the impact is only capable of affecting change in monor events within a scripton, or changing narratives at the micro scale and do not impact narratives at the macro scale.2013, Zach Waggoner, Terms of Play: Essays on Words That Matter in Videogame Theory, →ISBN, page 21: