nschultz@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Ned W. Schultz) (08/13/89)
Seems to me there was some talk about the demo version or browser or whatever it was being posted a while back. Has this appeared somewhere or is someone keeping stacks somewhere? Haven't seen anything new in comp.binaries.amiga for quite some time...it wasn't there was it? Is it feasible for someone to post or email a copy? Thanks... Ned Schultz nschultz@polyslo.calpoly.edu
wdimm@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU (William Dimm) (08/15/89)
I have been watching all of this talk about UltraCard without a clue about what it is. Could someone post a brief description for those of us who don't use Macs (thank God)? -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Bill Dimm wdimm@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU wcd0@lehigh.BITNET \X/ "It's not the facts but the explanation that counts." - unknown ------------------------------------------------------------------------
jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) (08/17/89)
In article <609@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU> wdimm@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU (William Dimm) writes: >I have been watching all of this talk about UltraCard without a clue >about what it is. Could someone post a brief description for those >of us who don't use Macs (thank God)? For those of you who haven't seen the July issue of Amazing Computing, I'll describe version 1.01a of UltraCard. When you click on UltraCard's icon, it starts up the "Control Room" stack. It displays a backdrop (an IFF picture) that has four large light blue squares. Then it overlays the backdrop with the label "Control Room" in red along the bottom, and puts buttons in the squares. The buttons are dark blue with white borders and a black dropshadow and the letters are in a font other than Topaz. (The size, shape, and location of the buttons can be changed, as can the color, outline color, severity of backdrop, and font.) The button in the upper left box is marked "Programs". When you click on it, a digitized sound sample goes "swoosh" and the narrator device says "You can create a new frame like a stack frame and install your favorite programs." The button in the lower left marked "Ideas!" causes the Amiga to say "Call the Intuitive Technologies BBS for more stacks". The two buttons on the right are labeled "Stacks" and "More" and are gateways to new frames. They restore the backdrop to its original condition (minus the title and the previous buttons), then go to a new frame that puts up a new set of buttons on the backdrop. After clicking the "More" button you are sent to a frame that allows you to define which programs are to be invoked. There is a new button at the bottom of the screen (taking almost all the width) that gives instructions when clicked. If you click on the button marked "Paint", it sets a global variable inside of UltraCard. This variable is the name of the program to be run when a stack frame wants to run a paint program. (Global variables are writting to disk so that they retain their values between runs.) There is also a white arrow on the screen which will return you to the previous frame. Going back to the main Control Room frame, if you click on the "Stacks" button, it also resets the backdrop and then shows four new buttons; "Ultradex", "Calender", "Help", and "Open..". Selecting "Ultradex" puts you in a Name & Addresses database. (The Ultradex screen is hi-res (all others I've mentioned were lo-res) and has all sorts of different buttons.) Selecting "Calender" brings up a calender with special days marked. (On this hi-res screen, each day of the month is a separate button - clicking on that button brings up notes for that day.) Selecting "Open.." brings up a file requester which allows you to select a new stack. (On the demo disk, the available stacks are ControlRoom, Ultradex, Calender, and Help.) If you select "Help", it jumps to a frame with a new backdrop with a flowchart the recommends that you select the following: first: "About Help" second: any one or all of "Menus", "Keyboard", "Objects", "UltraTalk" third: either "Index" or "HowTo". The "About Help" button's behaviour is something new: As long as you keep the left mouse button down, a previously invisible box pops into view with instructions. As soon as you let up on the mouse button, the instruction box returns to invisibility. The other buttons on this help screen bring up scrolling text gadgets that allow you to read descriptions that are bigger than a window. By now you should have noticed a problem I have had in trying to describe all this. For a new frame, should I describe everything in view and then go into detail, or should I describe the first object in detail, including its sub-objects before going back to the second main object? That, in essence, is what hyper-text is all about. The user doesn't have to follow a linear sequence of descriptions like in a book. By clicking on whatever looks interesting, one can down several levels, up, over, and jump all around at whim. Another product for the Amiga, "Thinker", is primarily hyper-text. For the most part, you can click on words or phrases to bring up screens of more words and phrases. UltraCard and HyperCard are hyper-media - clicking on a word can bring up a picture, a sound, an animation, or just about anything else. ---------------------------------- The following is my interpretation of how UltraCard works. Please excuse any inaccuracies - I'm trying to get the general ideas across. In UltraCard, a Stack is a collection of Frames. There is a script for the stack, where you can tell UltraCard what to do when entering the stack (such as copying files to RAM:) and when leaving the stack (such as deleting those files from RAM:). A Frame consists of a BackDrop and collection of Objects (including Buttons and Windows). Several frames can share a common backdrop. There is a script executed when entering and leaving the backdrop and one for entering and leaving the frame. Programming the buttons (Objects) is the most interesting. One section of the object's script is executed when the left mouse button is pressed, the other section is executed when the left mouse button is released. Things you can do in the script include playing an audio sample, saying text via the Amiga's narrator.device, setting internal variables (such as the visibility of another object), running a program (launched as WorkBench would have done), and executing a CLI command. There is also IF/ELSE/ENDIF, arithmetic operations, string operations, JUMP TO FRAME, GetFileName, keypress detection, and once a second/minute/hour ticks. That's just the object's script. The object can be a rectange/square or a circle/ellipse. It can be transparent, opaque with selectable color or an IFF brush. It can have no outline, or 1 to 3 lines surrounding it. It can a drop shadow of none, light, medium, heavy. The colors of the outline and drop shadow are independently setable. Objects which are simply clicked upon can have their name inside or outside the object. You can choose the font, color, underlining, etc. An object can have a value, such as the string of digits in a "Phone Number" object. A scrollbar options is available for text whose size exceeds the boundaries of the object. (Each object can have a different font, but all the text inside a given object must be the same font.) With UltraCard, you can quickly define a full-screen menu that will run your favorite program when the appropriate button is selected. Since the "source code" to the stacks are embedded in the stack's file, you can customize the existing stacks. Change the colors, change the fonts, even do something like modify the name and addresses database stack to display a small IFF picture of the person whose name is being displayed. Does that answer the question? :-) -- Joe Smith (408)922-6220 | SMTP: JMS@F74.TYMNET.COM or jms@tymix.tymnet.com McDonnell Douglas FSCO | UUCP: ...!{ames,pyramid}!oliveb!tymix!tardis!jms PO Box 49019, MS-D21 | PDP-10 support: My car's license plate is "POPJ P," San Jose, CA 95161-9019 | narrator.device: "I didn't say that, my Amiga did!"
portuesi@tweezers.esd.sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) (08/18/89)
In article <514@tardis.Tymnet.COM> jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) writes:
The button in the lower left marked "Ideas!" causes the Amiga
to say "Call the Intuitive Technologies BBS for more stacks".
That's interesting, because I tried calling the Intuitive Technologies
BBS and nothing answered the phone on the other end. Has anybody else
had success calling this BBS? Are there enough goodies on it to make
it worth my trouble? I was looking for a more recent version of the
Browser, myself.
--M
--
Michael Portuesi Silicon Graphics Computer Systems, Inc.
portuesi@SGI.COMlphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) (08/19/89)
In <PORTUESI.89Aug18094811@tweezers.esd.sgi.com>, portuesi@tweezers.esd.sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) writes: >In article <514@tardis.Tymnet.COM> jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) writes: > > The button in the lower left marked "Ideas!" causes the Amiga > to say "Call the Intuitive Technologies BBS for more stacks". > > >That's interesting, because I tried calling the Intuitive Technologies >BBS and nothing answered the phone on the other end. Has anybody else >had success calling this BBS? Are there enough goodies on it to make >it worth my trouble? I was looking for a more recent version of the >Browser, myself. That's funny... it doesn't do anything on mine. Other scripts that use 'say' work fine (well, I hate the voice stuff, and have been removing it as I find it), but the 'Ideas...' one does nothing at all. Of course, as with all the other gadgets in this program, you have no way of knowing if it's doing something or not unless you wait long enough to either see what happens or decide that nothing is going to happen. Best thing Intuitive could do right now is to hire someone who knows what a good user interface is. -larry -- "So what the hell are we going to do with a Sun?" - Darlene Phillips - +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | // Larry Phillips | | \X/ lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | | COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 -or- 76703.4322@compuserve.com | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) (08/23/89)
In article <PORTUESI.89Aug18094811@tweezers.esd.sgi.com> portuesi@tweezers.esd.sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) writes: >That's interesting, because I tried calling the Intuitive Technologies >BBS and nothing answered the phone on the other end. Has anybody else >had success calling this BBS? Are there enough goodies on it to make >it worth my trouble? I was looking for a more recent version of the >Browser, myself. I finally got thru today and picked up version 1.11 of the UltraCard Browser. Last week their "phone droid" said that due to erratic power, the BBS had been shut down. It looks like it came back alive around 3am August 21st. The new phone droid message says "if you get this message while dialing the BBS, it means that someone else is actively using the system". It's a strange phone system, where it sends you to the main business line instead of giving you a busy signal. The BBS is (408)646-9260, the voice line is (408)646-9147. -- Joe Smith (408)922-6220 | SMTP: JMS@F74.TYMNET.COM or jms@tymix.tymnet.com McDonnell Douglas FSCO | UUCP: ...!{ames,pyramid}!oliveb!tymix!tardis!jms PO Box 49019, MS-D21 | PDP-10 support: My car's license plate is "POPJ P," San Jose, CA 95161-9019 | narrator.device: "I didn't say that, my Amiga did!"
ruslan@ecsvax.UUCP (Robin C. LaPasha) (08/23/89)
In article <533@tardis.Tymnet.COM>, jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) writes: > In article <PORTUESI.89Aug18094811@tweezers.esd.sgi.com> portuesi@tweezers.esd.sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) writes: > >That's interesting, because I tried calling the Intuitive Technologies > >BBS and nothing answered the phone on the other end. Has anybody else > >had success calling this BBS? Are there enough goodies on it to make > > Last week their "phone droid" said that due to erratic power, the BBS had > been shut down. It looks like it came back alive around 3am August 21st. [It's] > a strange phone system, where it sends you to the main business line instead > of giving you a busy signal. > > The BBS is (408)646-9260, the voice line is (408)646-9147. I tried calling the voice line yesterday (8/22) and got a carrier signal. Just for jollies, I tried hooking up to it, but couldn't get a connect. Don't know; maybe it suddenly became a fax line? Actually, the reason I called was to try and find out why I don't have my copy of UltraCard yet. Has anyone else been waiting for an order from them? -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=- Robin LaPasha |Deep-Six your ruslan@ecsvax.uncecs.edu |files with VI! ;^) ;^) ;^)
rminnich@super.ORG (Ronald G Minnich) (08/26/89)
In article <7552@ecsvax.UUCP> ruslan@ecsvax.UUCP (Robin C. LaPasha) writes: >Actually, the reason I called was to try and find out why I >don't have my copy of UltraCard yet. Has anyone else been waiting >for an order from them? Well it took about four weeks and I got my ultracard. Remember this is a small outfit, they are going to wait for your check to clear i bet, and there are sure to be other delays. I notice that the manual mentions two disks and i only had one in the bag; can anybody tell me one way or another how many you should get? BTW i doubt they can afford a phone droid; you were probably talking to one of the developers ... As for the product: *************************I LOVE IT******************************* It is really neat. One thing i *HATED* about hypercard was it took over the machine (in good Macintosh fashion, of course). You may have had a favorite paint program or editor, but you were stuck with whatever tools there were in hypercard if you didn't want to leave hypercard. Yuck. Following amiga rules, ultracard is a good multi-tasking citizen; you can tell it to invoke your favorite editor on scripts, for example, and edit scripts with emacs. And so on. Yes it has gurued on me but what the hell ... it is version 1.11. Give these folks a chance, I really think this thing is going to be a winner, if they can just make it through the start-up company nightmare. If you want to play with this now, and if you want to support a company that is bringing a real important product to the Amiga market, you might want to buy it. ron disclaimer: i didn't write UltraTalk, i don't own 400,000 shares of of intuitive stock, and hell, i live on the east coast anyways: i don't know anybody important.
portuesi@tweezers.esd.sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) (08/28/89)
In article <13457@super.ORG> rminnich@super.ORG (Ronald G Minnich) writes:
Following amiga rules, ultracard is a good multi-tasking
citizen; you can tell it to invoke your favorite editor on scripts,
for example, and edit scripts with emacs. And so on. Yes it has gurued
on me but what the hell ... it is version 1.11. Give these folks a chance,
I dialed up the Intuitive Technologies BBS over the weekend, and
downloaded the newest version of the Browser (1.11) plus the stacks
supplied with it.
After the machine gurued when I clicked on a button in the Help stack,
I rebooted and tried again. I clicked on "Programs" in the Control
room and got a requestor saying "Ultrabench not found" (whatever
Ultrabench is -- the browser didn't come with a README file).
Clicking on other buttons in the Control Room crashed the machine.
After going through the crash-reboot cycle a few times, I just gave
up. At this point I will buy UltraCard only if Intuitive Technologies
offers a liberal update policy. I really want to buy this product,
but I want it to be at least halfway dependable.
In case it matters, I am running on a 2.5 MB A1000 with Dmouse 1.10,
FaccII, ARexx 1.10, ConMan 1.3, and jazzbench (I think that's
everything). I dumped all the software into a directory on my hard
disk and issued "assign ultra: user:ucarddemo". I put the sample
stacks in a subdirectory labeled "stacks" as the UCard Browser
expected. I'm not sure what else should be expected of me to make the
program work properly.
--M
------
PERSONAL MESSAGE to Valentin: I tried sending replies to your mail on
Friday, but evidently you did not receive them. I just tried sending
you another message today (Monday). Let me know if it gets to you.
--
__
\/ Michael Portuesi Silicon Graphics Computer Systems, Inc.
portuesi@SGI.COM
"$16,000! And all he wanted to do was dip us in plaster!"sdl@linus.UUCP (Steven D. Litvintchouk) (08/29/89)
In article <13457@super.ORG> rminnich@super.ORG (Ronald G Minnich) writes: > *************************I LOVE IT******************************* > It is really neat. One thing i *HATED* about hypercard was it took over the > machine (in good Macintosh fashion, of course). Not quite. You could run Hypercard under Multifinder, and run other applications as well, *if* you had a whole lot of RAM. Hypercard is 389K in size (not counting the stack sizes which can get huge too). How big is UltraCard? How big do the stacks get? Can you run Ultracard + some reasonably sized stacks on a 1 meg Amiga? Steven Litvintchouk MITRE Corporation Burlington Road Bedford, MA 01730 Fone: (617)271-7753 ARPA: sdl@mitre-bedford.arpa UUCP: ...{att,decvax,genrad,ll-xn,philabs,utzoo}!linus!sdl "Those who will be able to conquer software will be able to conquer the world." -- Tadahiro Sekimoto, president, NEC Corp.
darin@nova.laic.uucp (Darin Johnson) (08/30/89)
Quick question. Since I was unable to get onto the UltraCard BBS (and won't, since I am moving, and long distance calls to a BBS don't jive with a students budget), how does one become a registered user? There was no card in the package, and no mention of how to register ones self. I assumed that there may be some sort of registration on the BBS (which is a stupid idea if true - people in other countries may spend more money calling the BBS then the package cost). Darin Johnson (leadsv!laic!darin@pyramid.pyramid.com) We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.
UD092096@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Barry Pederson) (08/30/89)
The UltraCard browser sounds pretty nifty, is it available anywhere for anonymous FTP? Thanks, ------- Barry Pederson ud092096@vm1.nodak.edu or ud092096@ndsuvm1.BITNET
rminnich@super.ORG (Ronald G Minnich) (08/31/89)
In article <PORTUESI.89Aug28094422@tweezers.esd.sgi.com> portuesi@tweezers.esd.sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) writes: >After the machine gurued when I clicked on a button in the Help stack, >I rebooted and tried again. I clicked on "Programs" in the Control >room and got a requestor saying "Ultrabench not found" (whatever >Ultrabench is -- the browser didn't come with a README file). >Clicking on other buttons in the Control Room crashed the machine. 1) Assign ultrabench: <wherever-you-run-the-program-from> 2) make sure your stack is big. 3) You are running a fair amount of Other Stuff. Maybe you can assume that the problem is UltraCard. On the other hand, maybe it is an interaction between UltraCard and the Other Stuff. 4) I haven't crashed it just by browsing- just by writing things. ron
ruslan@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Robin C. LaPasha) (09/01/89)
In article <66130@linus.UUCP>, sdl@linus.UUCP (Steven D. Litvintchouk) writes: > In article <13457@super.ORG> rminnich@super.ORG (Ronald G Minnich) writes: > > *************************I LOVE IT******************************* > > It is really neat. One thing i *HATED* about hypercard was it took over the > > machine (in good Macintosh fashion, of course). > > Not quite. You could run Hypercard under Multifinder, and run other > applications as well, *if* you had a whole lot of RAM. > > Hypercard is 389K in size (not counting the stack sizes which can get > huge too). > > How big is UltraCard? How big do the stacks get? Can you run > Ultracard + some reasonably sized stacks on a 1 meg Amiga? > The program itself (version 1.11) is 235K. The ControlRoom (I guess it'd be like the Home stack) is another 116K. The Browser (the freely distributable thingie) is 104K. Some other examples: the Help stack is 136K (it has 3 or 4 major subtopics;) while a one-frame stack I built with a 16-color med-res picture as background (with two objects) was 57K. (Of course, that doesn't count showanim and the 425K anim I launched from within UltraCard via a CLI command...) Which brings up another issue - according to my text on HyperTalk (Shafer) you can't get back to HyperCard automatically if you launch an application under MultiFinder or miniFinder; you get left back at the system. But, with the regular Finder everything is "suspended" until the launched application finishes and returns you to HyperCard. I haven't tried "run" or "runback" yet with UltraCard, but as a normal CLI command it _should_ behave the same as it usually does (I just am not sure what'll happen ;^)). In any case, I expect that the ARexx links give a bunch of other options for what UltraCard can run, grab data from, and otherwise use - which may explain why Apple is trying to devise something similar for a 7.0-ish release (according to InfoWorld, they're building some sort of scripting language to go across apps..) (Disclaimers - Apple, *Finder, H*Card and H*Talk are probably all Apple's trademarks of some sort...) -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=- Robin LaPasha |Deep-Six your ruslan@ecsvax.uncecs.edu |files with VI! ;^) ;^) ;^)
jtm@ncs-med.UUCP (John T. McGibbon) (09/08/89)
[..)(*#&(*&@*^&%@#&*^%@ (why feed the line eater anything but garbage?!?]
I am interesed in contacting the company that distributes UltraCard
but due to a system space problem here (and my not saving the
previous postings relating to this before they were expired) I did
not get the informtion posted previously.
Could some kind soul please E-mail me the phone number/address of
the outfit?
Thanks
--
UUCP: jtm@ncs-med.UUCP -or- ...{siesmo!rutgers}!umn-cs!ems!pwcs!ncs-med!jtm
John T. McGibbon -jtm- (612) 936-8505
Now -- > Dimensional Medicine, Inc.
"No Brain, No Pain"