Today, programmers, web-developers and designers possess countless
different ways to display digital words online, much like an artist with
a blank canvas. As words float across our computer screens, code may be
considered the underlying thought and form of expression that supports
online words, preventing the words from physically or metaphorically
“disappearing into [cyber]space” (Richards, 90). For someone to be able
to read this essay on a computer screen, for instance, a great deal of
thought had to go into the code that governs these words. HypertextJavascript snippets were written to allow images and
links to appear within the text. A Cascading Style Sheet
(CSS) was written to control the size, color and style of the text. HTMLweb-server
and tested to make sure that the words appear correctly across most
major web-browsers. Each step within the process was carefully thought
out ahead of time. The question thus becomes: can one consider the
underlying code required to present words online as a form of creative
thought or is it nothing more than simple machine instructions? Is
code, as Adrian Mackenzie asks, “a form of expression or an operation?”
(22).  —Ed Ruscha

This is an excerpt from a block of text identified as an introduction. The site says: “Please note: you can download this essay as a
.PDF file by clicking here, or you can watch this essay by viewing the
video above or read it using the hypertext below.” But I don’t see any actual link to the PDF. Is the missing link part of the artist’s creation, or a coding error?