Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!dptg!ulysses!andante!mit-eddie!wuarchive!usc!apple!jkc
From: jkc@Apple.COM (John Kevin Calhoun)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: Why Swedish message in all HyperCard stacks?
Message-ID: <46661@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 17 Nov 90 01:08:38 GMT
References: <9581@fy.sei.cmu.edu>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 46


In article <9581@fy.sei.cmu.edu> ford@sei.cmu.edu (Gary Ford) writes:
>I have noticed that all hypercard stacks, when viewed as text files, seem
>to end with "Nu a"r det slut" (Swedish for "now it's done").  Is there a
>reason for this, other than perhaps one of the developers was of Swedish
>heritage?

This isn't actually true of all HyperCard stacks, just stacks in
HyperCard 2.0 format.

There's an object at the end of the each stack called a tail object.
It's sole purpose is to be the last object.  In the old format, it 
contained the string

   That's all, folks...

which requires 20 bytes as a Pascal string.  In the new format,
we had only 16 bytes for the string and had to come up with something
new.

Adam Paal chose

   C'est la fin!!!

for the string, and all during our alpha stage, that's what the
tail object contained.  If you have a stack with "C'est la fin!!!"
in it's tail object, you've got a rare find.

However, in one of those moments when I was so tired that I couldn't
do any real work, I decided that because excessive use of exclamation
points was appropriate only in cartoon strips and in letters that
express unrequited love, we needed a better string in the tail object.
I couldn't come up with anything good in English, and neither could
Martin Gannholm, who was there at the time.  Martin has been in many
places, one of which is Sweden.

So, there you have it.  Reason #11 why we took so long to ship.
But, like the man said, nu a"r det slut...

Kevin Calhoun
HyperCard Team
Apple Computer, Inc.

P.S. For you character counters out there, remember that Apple has
defined extensions to the ASCII character set that include the
ellipsis, as well as umlauted vowels.