Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!lll-winken!uunet!mcsun!inesc!unl!unl!px From: px@fct.unl.pt (Joaquim Baptista [pxQuim]) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard Subject: Re: Hypercard Pro Wishlist Message-ID: Date: 15 Mar 91 16:29:28 GMT References: <17537@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> <1469@vtserf.cc.vt.edu> Sender: news@fct.unl.pt (USENET News System) Organization: Universidade Nova de Lisboa -- Lisbon, Portugal Lines: 25 In-Reply-To: cohill@vtserf.cc.vt.edu's message of 15 Mar 91 14:16:06 GMT I have only one wish. Make hypercard FAST. If the underlying machinery is fast and general, you can program EVERYTHING yourself. Right now, one just has to avoid loops, since the overhead of interpretation is so large that any loop which executes 10 or 20 cicles takes seconds to complete. I gained interesting insight into this by trying to write the fastest "count words in file" program. I started with an obvious read-line-by-line version and ended up with a read-chunk-and-call-a- language-primitive version (the primitive being "the number of words of ..."). Now, I know the primitive is there but, as clarivident as the designers of Hypertalk may be, I will always need some thing that they did not think about, even if they are willing to put everything into Hypercard. So MAKE IT FAST, and I'll make the rest. -- Joaquim Manuel Soares Baptista, aka px@fct.unl.pt, px@unl.uucp Snail: CRIA, UNINOVA, FCT/UNL, 2825 Mt Caparica, Portugal So long, and thanks for all the fish.