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From: johnston@oscar.ccm.udel.edu (Bill Johnston)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: Hypercard Pro Wishlist
Message-ID: <47688@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Date: 15 Mar 91 07:21:26 GMT
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In article <17537@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>, leue@galen.crd.ge.com (Bill Leue) writes...
>No, of course there is no such product yet!  However, now that I've got your
>attention, isn't it about time that we in the HC user/developer 
>community started making our desires for new features known? If Claris
>runs true to form, there should be a 'Pro' version of HC out in 1-2
>years.  Let's start a good thread going and perhaps we can influence
>the feature set of the next version.

Why not?  

If I were a "Pro" or (even a greedy amateur) what I would want 
is a way to create double-clickable run-time versions of stacks.
Stacks are hard to sell, even if one puts alot of work into
a highly specialized solution to a real problem. 

>1. Better Color support, including color drawing tools and
>color properties for objects, e.g., color fonts properties for
>buttons and fields.  This is the only missing feature that really 
>separates HC from Supercard, IMHO.

Yes, and color is what will separate most Mac users from the stacks
that rely on it.  HyperCard is mostly a black and white 72-dpi bitmap
ditty that works in the same clean, predictable way for everybody.
I don't mind that it takes effort for people to write stacks that
won't run on my Mac -- I even LIKE that fact.  4-bit, 8-bit, 24-bit?
Do we bundle video cards with our stacks?  Simple is nice sometimes.

>4. A set of Claris-supported XCMD`s and XFCN's for device interfaces:
>a serial port interface library, network library, and file system interface
>library come to mind immediately.

In my opinion, asking for Claris support would be tantamount to 
killing the goose that lays the golden egg.  Much of the good stuff 
comes from Apple (directly or indirectly) anyway -- if the stuff 
had to be supported by Claris we'd end up getting less and have 
to jump through more hoops to use it.  The guys responsible for the 
serial port toolkit, the appleshare toolkit, the Support Tools externals,
and the TCP/IP stuff would be less willing to kick in if they
know that they are going to end up having to answer to Claris
if a user needs to know why xyz xcmd won't work with his or her
stack.  

It might be nice if that stuff could be collected and
distributed on a "buyer beware" basis by somebody besides APDA,
but official support -- no thank you! 

Such a collection of externals would be a good addition to the 
vaporware $199 development version of HyperCard 2.  Yes, I know
that the $199 version is for Exxon who won't buy a product unless
it's suitably expensive.

But a collection that merely put together the externals that
are currently available by anonymous ftp might save that much 
in modeming fees (or time, if anybody were foolish
enough to admit to what's eaten by ftp and netnewsing.).

-- Bill Johnston (johnston@oscar.ccm.udel.edu)
-- 38 Chambers St.; Newark, DE 19711; (302)368-1949