Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!haven!udel!princeton!stone!bskendig From: bskendig@stone.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard Subject: Good books on HyperCard (was Re: Goodman's HC2 book complete?) Message-ID: <3916@idunno.Princeton.EDU> Date: 8 Nov 90 05:40:17 GMT References: <12015@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> <11162@goofy.Apple.COM> Sender: news@idunno.Princeton.EDU Organization: Starfleet Academy: Princeton University PQC PTC CIT EECS SCI Lines: 64 In article <11162@goofy.Apple.COM> rickf@Apple.COM (Rick Fleischman) writes: >In article <12015@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> hawkwind@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Wes Lee Sanford) writes: >> ... The best HyperTalk >>book I've seen is put out by Addison-Wesley Publishing. The book is called >>HyperCard Scripting Language Guide: The HyperTalk Language. >>... This book >>was recommended by Apple's finest HyperCard Guru's. I have a copy of the >>book for 1.2.5 and it is a really great book >The HyperCard Scripting Language Guide for version 2.0 of HyperCard is NOT >available through APDA. We are still only selling the version that covers >up through HyperCard v.1.2.5. I've seen this book, and I wasn't terribly impressed. Sure, it's a very good reference, but I guess I've been spoiled by the jocular style of the Bantam books. If you want a manual written by the company who made the software, this one's for you; otherwise, try one of the three below (which were written by the people who wrote HyperCard). >The Complete HyperCard 2.0 Handbook, Third Edition by Danny Goodman >(P/N: T0148LL/B, $29.95) Well, Danny Goodman didn't exactly write HyperCard, but he worked with it through its design process. The Handbook is an excellent guide for someone who hasn't done much with HyperCard but would like to learn; this details activities such as painting, using fields, and basic scripting. >Cooking with HyperTalk 2.0 by Dan Winkler and Scott Knaster >(P/N: T0398LL/A, $39.95) This one, as its preface states, is for people who want to begin learning serious scripting. I've looked at it briefly -- it has a very friendly, winning tone to it that I liked. (The handler for `on veggieSoup' was nice -- could someone who has the book email me the text of that? It's *cute*.) It also comes with a disk of stacks to work with. >HyperTalk 2.0: The Book by Dan Winkler and Scot Kamins >(P/N: T0399LL/A, $29.95) This, in my opinion, is the Bible of it all. It explains HyperTalk about as thoroughly as a book can, and has plenty of cross-references (come to think of it, this book would be useful as a HypperCard stack...). It also explains the cases where things don't work as they should, and tells about all the bugs and differences in versions 1.2.2 and 1.2.5 in case you need to know. Needless to say, I got myself a copy. ;) The only caveat to getting one of these books is that all three were written and published before HyperCard 2.0 was finished. There may be a few things that have changed between Then and Now (like, is it true that they released HC2 so late because they realized that the manuals didn't mention its color capability, and so they had to take the color out?), so maybe the books are only 99 and 44/100 per cent faithful, but they're excellent in every other regard. << Brian >> | Brian S. Kendig \ Macintosh | Engineering, | bskendig | | Computer Engineering |\ Thought | USS Enterprise | @phoenix.Princeton.EDU | Princeton University |_\ Police | -= NCC-1701-D =- | @PUCC.BITNET | "It's not that I don't have the work to *do* -- I don't do the work I *have*."