Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site yetti.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!yetti!peter From: peter@yetti.UUCP (Runge) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: Hypercard (was MacWorld Expo Rumors...) Message-ID: <525@yetti.UUCP> Date: Wed, 12-Aug-87 02:33:10 EDT Article-I.D.: yetti.525 Posted: Wed Aug 12 02:33:10 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 14-Aug-87 02:25:58 EDT References: <1947@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> Reply-To: peter@yetti.UUCP (Peter Roosen-Runge) Organization: York University Computer Science Lines: 88 In article <1947@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> chow@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (Christopher Chow) writes: > >I stumbled upon the following on Delphi recently: > > >MacWorld Expo/Boston Daily Summary Report / Preview > >Sunday, August 9, 1987 >RUMORED: HyperCard (sometimes called WildCard), will SHIP at the show. This is >a new product from Bill Atkinson that Apple is expected to bundle with every >Mac sold. We did notice that in the show guide, the following appeared in the >description for Bantam Electronic Publishing, booth 657: > > * THE COMPLETE HYPERCARD HANDBOOK by Danny Goodman. A comprehensive guide to >using and programming HyperCard. Includes the only documentation available on >HyperTalk, the program generating language for HyperCard. > I assume that Hypercard has been announced at the show by now, and that I won't be stepping on any Apple corns if I post a few comments. Having spent the last two days happily immersed in HyperCard, experimenting and building small examples, I can say that Goodman's book, at least the draft I'm using, while well-intentioned, is not really up to the splendid conception of the product itself. Luckily the on-line help is really nicely done, and as usual, you learn a lot by studying other people's working scripts, especially as the system is designed to be re-constructable in di Sessa's sense, so that rather than typing code, you are modifying the results of cutting and pasting from an (already) rich assortment of usable stuff. I certainly hope the nifty (and complicated looking) examples at the end of the Hypercard User's Guide will be on the disks. Otherwise almost instantly, someone will be bugging the Net to see if those stacks have been posted. I understand that HyperCard is being bundled with new Macs -- very clever! Remember what MacPaint did to convince people to buy Macs in '84? However, now there's a large crowd of existing Mac owners, and I don't see how it will be possible to keep them from getting their hands on HyperCard even if Apple decides to try to charge them for it. It's hard to imagine that anyone with a MacPlus or better would want to do without it. So I hope Apple will not try to stem the tide, and just let it all flow out to a world thirsty for hypertext. > * BUSINESS CLASS by Danny Goodman. HyperCard stackware > I can think of at least 3 good reasons why HyperCard businessware won't amount to much (for one, too many will wait for IBM to announce that hypertext products will be available under the Presentation Manager in '89 :-); for the other 2? well, of course, that would cost you!), and the predictable pooh-poohing from "industry watchers" can be discounted. It's those of us in the educational market who are going to have the real fun with this product, and that's going to make the market for "the rest of them" and sell a lot of Mac hardware to boot. The question now is -- what happens to Intermedia, and Boxer? and in general, all those neat systems running on Suns, Apollos, RTs, Symbolics etc., which are unaffordable for most individual users, and for most schools too, (particularly when it comes to equipping labs for undergraduates)? Are they still interesting? Is the extra power of those systems worth the enormously greater cost? And should one shed a tear for the authors of Course Builder ($299 US) and Owl/Guide ($335)?? (see August Byte, page 263) It must be painful to be wiped out by software that's not only better but (almost) free. Peter Roosen-Runge ...!mnetor!yetti!peter or CS100006@YUSOL (NetNorth; BITNET) Dept. of Computer Science, York University 4700 Keele St., North York (really Toronto), Ontario M3J 1P3 "Who is it that speaks? It is the Logos that speaks. It is the universe that speaks and we are the machines to translate the universe." Alfred Tomatis, 1978, quoted in MUSICWORKS 35 -- Peter Roosen-Runge ...!utzoo!yetti!peter or CS100006@YUSOL (NetNorth; BITNET) Dept. of Computer Science, York University 4700 Keele St., North York (really Toronto), Ontario M3J 1P3 "Who is it that speaks? It is the Logos that speaks. It is the universe that speaks and we are the machines to translate the universe." Alfred Tomatis, 1978, quoted in MUSICWORKS 35