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From: rsfinn@athena.mit.edu (Russell S. Finn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: Claris Press Release 11/19
Message-ID: <1990Nov28.195453.25542@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 28 Nov 90 19:54:53 GMT
References: <1990Nov27.010702.8472@midway.uchicago.edu> <46893@apple.Apple.COM>
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Reply-To: rsfinn@athena.mit.edu (Russell S. Finn)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lines: 22

In article <46893@apple.Apple.COM>, jkc@Apple.COM (John Kevin Calhoun) quotes 
Mary Bushnell, the HyperCard Product Specialist at Claris:

> "The Development Kit is everything that a new user of HyperCard needs to learn
> stackware development.  It includes the following manuals that aren't part of
> the upgrade package: Getting Started With HyperCard, The HyperCard Reference
> Guide, and Beginners' Guide to Scripting.  Because you're already a proficient
> HyperCard developer, you probably won't require this additional material.
> 
> "The Development Kit is the complete HyperCard 2.0 product.  The upgrade,
> in essence, is the differential between the complete HyperCard 1.x product
> and the Development Kit."

If this is really the case, then someone at Claris needs to learn how to write press releases better.  :-)  Another software company would simply say something like:  "HyperCard 2.0 will be available in January at a suggested retail of $199.  Current HyperCard 1.x owners may upgrade for $49; upgrade orders are being taken now..."  This common wording would keep people like me from wondering what's really in those five manuals that's worth $150.  (The answer appears to be "Not much.")

Personally, having already purchased the fine book "HyperTalk 2.0: The Book," my only interest in the $49 upgrade is (a) real documentation on things like the new debugger and variable watcher, (b) the technical support available to registered owners, and (c) the latest bug fixes (roughly in that order).  I decided that this was worth the upgrade cost.  However, is the information I seek available in the upgrade, or is it in the "HyperCard Reference Guide" (which is *not* in the upgrade according to the ab






ove)?

-- Russ
rsfinn@athena.mit.edu

P.S.  I'm a little disappointed that Claris is *apparently* raising the price of the full HyperCard "package" from $49 to $199; that seems a little steep (granted, the street price will probably be "only" $125 or so).