Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!ucsd!nosc!cod!sampson
From: sampson@cod.NOSC.MIL (Charles H. Sampson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: What really happens when hypercard is launched?
Message-ID: <2023@cod.NOSC.MIL>
Date: 30 Jul 90 20:43:03 GMT
References: <1277@idunno.Princeton.EDU>
Reply-To: sampson@cod.nosc.mil.UUCP (Charles H. Sampson)
Organization: Computer Sciences Corporation
Lines: 26

In article <1277@idunno.Princeton.EDU> eacelari@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Edward A Celarier) writes:
>I cannot find any documentation which states clearly and authoritatively
>what happens when hypercard is launched.
>
> [stuff deleted]
>
>Also:  Why is there no definitive documentation on hypercard function,
>hypertext syntax, and so on?
>
     I cannot find any documentation that states clearly and authoritatively
anything about Hypercard.  Please don't bring up the Addison-Wesley book.
It's good only by comparison with everything else, but its gaping holes
must be numbered in the hundreds.  This opinion is borne out by just a
casual reading of this newsgroup, when it becomes obvious that the standard
development/debugging technique in HC is "try something and see if it works."
If there were good documentation there would be a lot fewer questions sub-
mitted here.

     I don't think that the mediocrity of the documentation is the fault of
the documentors.  I suspect that Hypercard has been misnamed, that it should
be called Hyperkludge.  I looks to me like a bunch of basically good ideas
that have been cobbled together without regard to any underlying structure.
The poor documentors have come along after the fact and been given the thank-
less task of trying to make some sense of the mess.

                           Charlie Sampson