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From: johnston@oscar.ccm.udel.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: Hypercard 2.1 and Developers Kit, differences?
Message-ID: <56893@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Date: 21 Jun 91 19:45:31 GMT
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In article <13282@uwm.edu>, zark@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Steven M Kosloske) writes...
>I recently bought the HyperCard 2.1 upgrade for $49, (yeah, it took me long
>enough) and I saw that they're selling a HyperCard Developers kit, (they
>meaning Claris) for $140.  Is the $50 upgrade crippled at all, or does
>the Developers kit have a lot of extra toys for development/debugging
>stacks?

Two quibbles:  it's Development Kit, not Developer's Kit.  And there
aren't any "crippled" versions of HyperCard.  Any idiot with legs long
enough to reach the pedals can drive away any the so-called "Lite" versions
of the Home stack by typing "set the userLevel to 5" into the message box.

HyperCard 2.x is quite a jump for somebody that hasn't seen it before.
The Development Kit includes the kind of things that used to fit to
into the 1.x users manuals, which now occupies 5 volumes.  The Script 
Language guide that ships with the $49 upgrade is more like a dictionary.  
Both of them are good deals for the prices that Claris is asking.

One request for Apple/Claris:  HC 2.1 has great features that I'd like
to put into every script.  It's one thing to check for 2.x vs. 1.x if
it is essential to support the old HyperCard, but it starts getting
tedious to check for 2.0, 2.0v2, and 2.1 just so I can use a few of 
the 2.1-specific functions and properties.

Somehow, we've got to get the HyperCard 2.1 binary onto EVERY Mac
so that 2.x specific development can proceed.  I don't know what to 
tell the lawyers, but I can guarantee one thing for the BEAN-COUNTERS:
sales of HC 2.1 will INCREASE if you start by giving away HyperCard
Lite.  People will then be able to see what HC 2.1, and they will be
motivated to buy good documentation -- especially if they know that
there are people out there to use the stacks that they write.

-- Bill (johnston@minnie.me.udel.edu)