Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!dftsrv!rsdps.gsfc.nasa.gov!lev From: lev@rsdps.gsfc.nasa.gov (Brian S. Lev) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard Subject: Re: SuperCard vs HyperCard Message-ID: <4140@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> Date: 8 Dec 90 03:45:41 GMT References: <12593@milton.u.washington.edu> Sender: news@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov Reply-To: lev@rsdps.gsfc.nasa.gov Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - Greenbelt, MD, USA Lines: 69 News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4 In article <12593@milton.u.washington.edu>, kraig@biostr.biostr.washington.edu (Kraig Eno) writes... >>a discussion of the merits of HyperCard vs SuperCard. > >I use SuperCard for courseware development as well. The three things I >absolutely needed that HC didn't have were: > (1) large windows > (2) PICT graphics > (3) polygon buttons > >I've since found out that I could have done a lot with XCMD's, but I was a >scripting neophyte when I started the whole project. Having the support >built-in made a lot of things possible early on. [some text deleted] >Therein lies my question for the c.s.m.h crowd: does HyperCard 2.0 let you >make anything that could pass for an application? Or does it still look >like HyperCard in the end? Wellllll.... that's kind of the purpose of the standardized Mac user inter- face, isn't it? ;-) > Like, can I make my own "About..." menu option, and take out HyperCard's FILE > menu entirely? As far as I know, you can't permanently hide FILE in a stack (you can hide the menubar, but "recovering" it is a trivial command-spacebar), but I've seen a XCMD for putting your own "About..." entry under the Apple menu. For that matter, there are XCMDs (transparent to call in Hypertalk once installed in your stack) that let you choose how to display/hide PICT images (DispPict is the one I'm most familiar with, there are several), and the PolyButtons XCMD (which I've just begun to play with) seems to be a pretty darn good method of creating all kinds of polygonal buttons. In essence, you hit it on the head -- there are (at least now) enough XCMDs and XFCNs out there to do almost everything in HC you can do in SC (as I understand it, never having used SC). HC2 even has ways of displaying color pictures (in a separate window), albeit only semi-functionally -- but that's the only area *I* (please note again my lack of SC experience...) am sure of a real difference in capability between the two. > You may be able to tell that I haven't looked into it too much, as SC makes > it all very easy. That sounds a lot like a good reason to use a package! > Perhaps it's just that HyperCard never did come with a good scripting manual > and I'm too cheap to buy things like that after the fact. I don't know about your buying habits (insert smiley here), but amen to that first statement! Then again, I'm too cheap to buy another program (SC) when something very similar came along with the Mac "for free"!!! :-) -- Brian +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Brian Lev/STX (301)286-9514 (FTS)888-9514 | | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center DECnet: SDCDCL::LEV (6153::LEV) | | Advanced Data Flow Technology Office TCP/IP: lev@dftnic.gsfc.nasa.gov | | Code 930.4 BITNET: LEV@DFTBIT | | Greenbelt, MD 20771 TELENET: [BLEV/GSFCMAIL] | | X.400 Address: (C:USA,ADMD:TELEMAIL,PRMD:GSFC,O:GSFCMAIL,UN:BLEV) | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "The ability of a network to knit together the members of a sprawling | | community has proved to be the most powerful way of fostering scienti- | | fic advancement yet discovered." -- Peter Denning | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | DISCLAIMER: THESE STATEMENTS ARE MY OWN AND *NOT* NASA'S OR STX'S! | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+