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From: ergo@netcom.UUCP (Isaac Rabinovitch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,alt.hypertext
Subject: Re: Hypertext on IBM-PCs
Message-ID: <12858@netcom.UUCP>
Date: 6 Jun 90 23:14:48 GMT
References: <9004150754.AA16288@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <4652@pegasus.ATT.COM> <3407@castle.ed.ac.uk> <1990Jun4.171447.24041@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
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In <1990Jun4.171447.24041@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> stone@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Glenn Stone) writes:

>> A faculty member on our campus has asked about hypertext software for IBM
>> clones.  They're interested in any type (PD, shareware, and commercial).
>> They said that they'd like graphics to be included in their data.
>Try:

>HyperBase       $99     Cogent Software  (508-875-6553)
>Houdini & related systems, various prices  MaxThink (415-428-0104)
>WildCard       ?        Spinnaker Corp.

>Some of these are discussed in the Mar 20, 1989, issue of PC-Week;
>I'm not sure if they are all still funct.

I've pared down the list to those I know something about.  Comments:

The $100 version of HyperBase is the personal version:  it can only creates
Hypertexts that need a copy of Personal HyperBase to run.  To create
compiled versions anybody can run, you need the professional version,
which costs about $400 (I think) but also allows you to add some "smarts"
to your hypertext with compiled C, Cogent Prolog, etc.  Both versions
have a built-in Prolog interpreter, and if I ever learn Prolog I'll have
to get this product and try it out.

I've never used Houdini, but I own MaxThink's flagship product, MaxThink.
This company is really good at applying unusual and creative ideas to
software, but their user interfaces are documentation are poorly thought-
out and obviously designed willy-nilly.  MaxThink is one of those products
you buy with high hopes and excitement for what it can do, but ends up
gathering dust because you get tired of puzzling out the manual and
fighting the controls.

If WildCard is the same product I recently read about, it allegedly
has an intriguing feature:  it can import Macintosh Hypercard stacks
(provided, of course you can get them onto MS-DOS media) *as-is*.
If this is true, it means that the WildCard user community will
just be an extension of the Hypercard user community -- always a
powerful argument in favor of a program.