Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!dan
From: dan@Apple.COM (Dan Allen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: Dynamic Cards?
Message-ID: <18206@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 4 Oct 88 16:27:22 GMT
References: <4.2348DA08@mailcom.UUCP>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 42

In article <4.2348DA08@mailcom.UUCP> postmaster@mailcom.UUCP (Bernard Aboba) writes:
>I have several questions:  Firstly, can one write XCMD's in MPW Fortran? 
>I know that MPW C is a problem, but I have no idea whether MPW Fortran 
>from Language Systems messes with register A5 or not.

MPW C can create XCMDs; there are just some constraints.  The same with
Fortran I suppose.  You SHOULD be able to, probably with less hassles
than with MPW C, but no one has ever tried it.  You will need to
translate the C stuff into Fortran...

>Next, can one create a card dynamically and paint on the foreground 
>easily?  In the background would be a map of the area or something.  

An XCMD can create cards on the fly without any program by just sending
a message back to HyperCard.  The background could be a map with the
foreground being specific.  No problem.

>I also need to do the contour maps in COLOR.  I have the COLOR X-CMD, but 
>that doesn't look too helpful here.

There are color XCMDs.  Working in color with HyperCard is a mixed
thing, since HyperCard does not provide native support for color images,
and won't for quite a while.  You CAN save gorgeous color images as
resources and use an XCMD to display, save, and restore images.

>Am I trying to do something impossible?  The most irritating thing of all 
>is that this is a piece of cake on the IBM PC, using software like 
>Graphics FX, PC Storyboard, Graphix Designer, etc.  I'd appreciate any 
>suggestions to help save my Mac Honor.

Well, if it IS so easy to do on a PC, then do it on a PC!  But I suspect
HyperCard offers lots of advantages that are VERY difficult to do on the
PC currently, so if this is true, all you have to do is a) convert the
XCMD stuff to work with Fortran and b) write some XCMDs to maintain
color images.

I would, of course, do it all in MPW C and/or Pascal because they
already work nicely with XCMDs, and they are just better languages in my
book.

Dan Allen
Apple Computer