Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ukma!wuarchive!emory!phssra
From: phssra@mathcs.emory.edu (Scott Robert Anderson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: ftp.apple.com and Hypercard 2.1
Message-ID: <7544@emory.mathcs.emory.edu>
Date: 23 May 91 20:18:36 GMT
References: <43412@netnews.upenn.edu> <7513@emory.mathcs.emory.edu> <167@eclectic.COM>
Organization: Department of Physics, Emory University, Atlanta
Lines: 63

In article <167@eclectic.COM> kenh@eclectic.COM (Ken Hancock) writes:
>In article <7513@emory.mathcs.emory.edu> phssra@mathcs.emory.edu (Scott Robert Anderson) writes:
>>In article <43412@netnews.upenn.edu> rubinoff@linc.cis.upenn.edu (Robert Rubinoff) writes:
>>>Will ftp.apple.com have version 2.1 of Hypercard?...
>>>And the compatability checker claims that 2.0 won't work under System 7.
>>
>>So much for HyperCard being "System Software"!  There are so many things
>>being distributed via HyperCard that it is really ridiculous that it is not
>>as freely available as the System.  I don't even care if all the user groups
>>get is the stripped-down version; we should at least be able to read the
>>stacks which come with System 7!
>
>Yo!  Chill, buddy.  In case you didn't know things change.  Claris is charging
>something like $50 for the upgrade kits and it's part of the PUKs for $99.

That's a step in the right direction.  At least it's available through some
channel, so that I don't have to sit here and wonder if I have to pay for the
developer's version.  Apple/Claris' silence was deafening.

>You decided you didn't want to pay for System 7.0.  Fine.  You got it from
>ftp/compuserve/AOL/etc.  Now you're whining that you didn't get Hypercard for
>free.

You miss the point.  Apple distributes HyperCard with the PUK and with all Macs
they ship.  They think it is important that it be available to all users.  It
is a lingua franca of the Macintosh.  So why, when they distribute the System
through the various channels they use, do some of these channels get HyperCard,
and others do not?   I'm not asking for the developer's version of HyperCard,
I'm asking for a version that will read the stacks that Apple themselves
distribute!

>Why not bitch and moan that you didn't get MacWrite and MacPaint free as well?
>After all, those used to be System Software as well and lots of people
>distribute files in MacWrite format...

I did bitch about MacWrite.  As you yourself point out, it is still the most
common medium for providing information on the Macintosh.  Apple should have
kept distributing plain ol' MacWrite with every Macintosh, and let Claris
develop the "full-featured" MacWrite II for commercial sale.  TeachText is an
extremely poor substitute.

MacPaint I could care less about, since its images can be distributed in many
different (but standard!) ways (MacWrite and Scrapbook files, for example).

>If neither of these suit your taste, maybe you better reconsider why on earth,
>you're using a Macintosh instead of the cheapest 286 clone you can get your
>hands on.

I know exactly why I'm using the Macintosh:  because it has a better System on
it, including HyperCard, both of which have been freely distributed to Mac
owners since their creation.  And that is why I paid substantially more money
for it than I would for a pc clone.

>Geeze.  You'd think people have better things to do than continually whine at
>everything in life.  I hope you're at least getting paid for whining...

I hope you are, too.

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  *      **                  Scott Robert Anderson      gatech!emoryu1!phssra
   *   *    *    **          phssra@unix.cc.emory.edu   phssra@emoryu1.bitnet
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