Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!doug-merritt
From: doug-merritt@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: How 'Bout HyperCard!
Message-ID: <5491@cup.portal.com>
Date: 16 May 88 18:57:10 GMT
References: <15372@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <31411@linus.UUCP> <5324@cup.portal.com> <2755@tekig5.TEK.COM>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
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I said:
>> I must differ with Steven about "Hypercard is not hypertext, nor

Wayne Knapp says:
>Yes, you can do animation with pencil and paper too.  I'm sure Hypercard is
>better than pencil and paper, but it is still going to be a lot of work.  What
>is a better and more likey solution is to build the Hypercard program so that 
>it can access animation done by animation programs.  Then you could use the  
>Hypercard program as sort of an editor.

I'm not entire sure exactly what your bottom line point is in this posting.

But let's try this out: By analogy with still pictures, we know we need
to have (1) a file format, like IFF, (2) display programs, like viewilbm
(3) editing programs, like Dpaint, (4) importation/translation of media
from other sources, like DigiView, or Sun2Iff (?), etc.

Hypercard has implemented a (secret & proprietary but standard) file format,
it allows display of hypermedia texts, and it allows editing them, too.
It also allows importing text created with document editors, pictures
from paint programs, etc. Like I said before, it may be lacking some
features you want, but doesn't it cover all the basics???

It is weakest in the edit area, since it must handle many different kinds
of media. It has MacPaint-like commands for creating pictures, but it's
not the greatest paint program. Same goes for editing text, etc. Isn't
this inevitable? How could any single program be the best possible at
editing *all* media types? Consider religious wars about plain old
text editors!

>  Hypercard, hypertext, hypermedia are not programs designed to produce data,
>rather they are programs and tools that allow the user to readily access the
>data in a way that is useful.  So if you had a CD full of frames of animation,
>hypermedia may be a great way of playing with how the frames are displayed,
>but if you wanted to change a frame other tools are better.

"Hypermedia" refers to the medium, not to the program. A CD can contain
regular video or animation, or it could contain a hypermedia document.
I'd definitely agree that Hypercard would be better for *displaying*
the contents of a CD full of video than for modifying it. But if the
CD contains a hypermedia structure, you might well want to edit that
structure using Hypercard. And use a video editor for editing the the
video. (Assume "CD" == "writable CD" here.)

>Sometimes it really seems that Amiga fans are living with real blinders
>on. [...] I've read so many studip blind things in Amiga mags. and Amiga
>usenet postings that I was really beginning to wonder about Amiga fans. I
>take heart that some people at least realize that the Amiga is just a machine
>and not a god.

If you substitute the word "jew" or "black" etc for "Amiga fans" in the
above, I think you'll find that it doesn't come across quite as nicely
as you probably wanted it to. "Damning with faint praise" is the phrase
that comes to mind. But I commend you for being open minded enough to
overcome your initial prejudice.

>I'm please to see that Amiga people are really looking at something Apple
>has brought to the general market.  Hypertext has been around for a long time
>but Apple seems to be the first to really get the micro market excited about
>it. 

Apple is clever about marketing. There have been commercial hypertext
systems available since 1970 on mainframes (primarily Doug Englebart's). 
And they've been available on micros prior to Hypercard. But they were
not well understood by the public. They still aren't in general, but
giving Hypercard away with Mac's sparked a lot of interest.

If you want to make comparisons (a dubious passtime), the appropriate
one would be versus "Commodore", not versus "Amiga people". There are lots
of Amiga folks who have been keenly interested in hypertext for years.

      Doug Merritt        ucbvax!sun.com!cup.portal.com!doug-merritt
                      or  ucbvax!eris!doug (doug@eris.berkeley.edu)
                      or  ucbvax!unisoft!certes!doug