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From: thomsen@trwspf.TRW.COM (Mark Thomsen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: hypertext vs. hypercards
Message-ID: <452@trwspf.TRW.COM>
Date: Sun, 4-Oct-87 17:40:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: trwspf.452
Posted: Sun Oct  4 17:40:07 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 7-Oct-87 07:18:46 EDT
References: <689@ufcsg.cis.ufl.EDU>
Reply-To: thomsen@trwspf.UUCP (Mark Thomsen)
Organization: TRW - Data Systems Lab., Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 55
Keywords: hypertext hypercards

In article <689@ufcsg.cis.ufl.EDU> mfi@ufcsg.cis.ufl.EDU (Mark Interrante) writes:
>Does anyone know if hypercards allows a user to associate a button with a 
>particular word in a text field?  This is a generic operation in most 
>hypertext systems and would be crippling to hypercards if such a facility 
>was not readily available.  
>
>I seems that Apple has underpowered the text facilities in favor of supporting
>extensive draw utilities. has anyone else found this hampering?


A script (the principle unit of action in Hypercard) may be associated with a
whole field or a button.  Fields and buttons are two types of objects of
roughly the same level of the inheritance hierarchy.

Thus ...

The direct answer is no, you cannot associated a button - or an action - with
a specific word in a field.  Yes, I do find this hampering, though this does
not come from working with Hypertext previously.  I would expect to expand and
define and link a word in various contexts of browsing information.

A thought ...

I have been producing personal stacks to get myself organized and have just
started thinking through some stacks I would like to share.  (Yes, I'm that
disorganized and yes my priorities are that way).  In thinking of new stacks
I have started a wish list for future Hypercard capabilities.  Bill Atkinson,
if you are out there:

  - Text seems to have a greater status than pictures.  Now, without object
    drawing it is hard, but it seems sensible to have picture fields.

  - A Hyperartifact may have its spaghetti in the development and refinement,
    and use various wordprocessors, spreadsheets, drawing tools, etc.  When
    done, it would be nice to say "print that" and have it all come together
    in a seemless document.  While hypertext is important in its own write
    (sorry John Lennon, it slipped), it sometimes is part of the process and
    not necessarily the final artifact.

  - There should be an automatic map display and navigation capability as in
    the help stack -- it is an essential feature of hypertext.

  - In my dreams I think of "tiny agents" that perform in the background to
    help perform certain housekeeping, alerting, sorting, searching, and such
    functions.  I would like to provide these as scripts that operate
    concurrently with browsing.  This suggests scripts below the surface of
    Hypercard, unassociated with any visible field, button, background, and
    maybe even stack (though it has to be someplace, like its own file).  I
    am unsure of exactly how this works, but it seems like a good thing to
    have.

That's all for now folks.


                                               Mark R. Thomsen