Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!boulder!rieman From: rieman@boulder.Colorado.EDU (John Rieman) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard Subject: Re: ?Hypercard compiled to Xcmds? Message-ID: <13883@boulder.Colorado.EDU> Date: 14 Nov 89 22:15:57 GMT References: Sender: news@boulder.Colorado.EDU Reply-To: rieman@boulder.Colorado.EDU (John Rieman) Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Lines: 26 There's a product called CompileIt from Heizer Software, 1-800-888-7667, which transforms some hypercard scripts into xcmds/xfcns. I was about to buy this, but replies to a network query of "is it any good?" convinced me not to. So, my second-hand knowledge is: Compilation is very slow -- like several hours for even some small scripts. The program itself is written in Hypercard, with a few x-stuff. But it won't compile itself. For the things it does compile, it really does give you a speed-up. For the things it won't compile, you may have a long wait before it gives a "can't do it" error message. It compiles individual modules ("on foo ..." and functions), not entire scripts. I think if you have some simple scripts with a few, time-critical subroutines, CompileIt might be a good alternative to working in C or Pascal. It doesn't seem to be the answer to magically giving you a ten-to-one speedup on an entire project. CompileIt also gives you access to the Toolbox. I called the above number and talked to a knowledgeable person, who was pretty helpful. Maybe someone else on the net has actually used CompileIt and can update this info. -john