Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!hellgate.utah.edu!cc.utah.edu!kofoid
From: KOFOID@cc.utah.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: SuperCard Runtime Editor
Message-ID: <46206@cc.utah.edu>
Date: 21 Feb 90 15:26:02 GMT
Lines: 33


    I would like to second David Yosts remarks about stupid proprietary text
editors, and would like to add Think Pascal's to the list. This otherwise
excellant programming language is definitely cheapened by a stupid editor which
masks as smart because it does a bit of syntax checking. I am offended at
having to stare at indentation which some arbitrary software engineer thinks is
correct for everybody else, and I'm annoyed that features available in editors
such as Qued/M are not available to users of this environment.

    I have written to Symantec and also spoken to them by phone about this
problem. They always assure me that the problem is a real one which they are
addressing, and nothing happens. I don't consider the few configurable options
thrown in to the last version as a real improvement. What should be done is
obvious: hooks should be written into the program which would extend
configurability to complete substitution of another editor, if this is what the
user wants. It would not be that difficult to incorporate a hook into the new
editor's 'find' feature which would allow curosor repositioning after an error
during program interpretation or compilation.

    These comments pertain even more to the HyperCard editor, which was worse
than crippled at birth. More like still-born. What puzzles me is why Apple
would *want* people to suffer such an environment, when it's obvious that good
stackware sells Macs. One would think that they, of all people, would want
HyperCard programming to be as easy, efficient and fun as possible.

    Cheers,

        Eric.

  Snail: Eric Kofoid; Dept. Biology, U. of Utah; SLC, UT 84103 USA
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