gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu (04/07/90)
chuq@Apple.Com (Chuck Von Rospach) writes: >jk3t+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jonathan King) writes: >> But seriously, why did this guy get a renewed permit to mint money >> over Hypercard 2.0 when there are many more deserving folks inside >> Apple who could probably put the clown to shame? > > Why is it impossible to post anything about anything these days on USENET > without someone flaming? Either the posting, the person posting it, or > finding some third, unrelated issue to flame on? It's not a flame, goodman's book is really pretty awful. I had the misfortune to receive it as a gift. Why does it look like Apple is supporting a guy who is writing The Complete Hypercard Book (That Sucks), 2nd Edition. When it is likely that the new edition will be just as counterproductive as the first edition. Is Apple giving equal pre-release time to the other authors who followed goodman, who wrote much better books? If a better author had written the "Insider's" book, then hypercard probably would have succeeded much faster. If there's one thing apple could do to document their system a little bit better, maybe it's to let *good* freelance tech writers join apple advanced development, under non-disclosure agreement, in order to research books about future products, or dig up useful internal facts.
nghiem@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Alex Nghiem) (04/10/90)
In article <126900197@p.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu writes: > >It's not a flame, goodman's book is really pretty awful. I had the >misfortune to receive it as a gift. Why does it look like Apple is >supporting a guy who is writing > > The Complete Hypercard Book (That Sucks), 2nd Edition. > >When it is likely that the new edition will be just as >counterproductive as the first edition. Is Apple giving equal I found the book to be really useful. It has a great command/function/ reserved word reference in the back. Of course, if you do not take the time to comprehend what you read or if you have limited programming ability, this book would not mean anything to you. >pre-release time to the other authors who followed goodman, who wrote >much better books? If a better author had written the "Insider's" >book, then hypercard probably would have succeeded much faster. > >If there's one thing apple could do to document their system a little >bit better, maybe it's to let *good* freelance tech writers join apple >advanced development, under non-disclosure agreement, in order to >research books about future products, or dig up useful internal facts. I no problem with the Apple Hypercard manual. Of course, it does not include a Hypertalk reference--it was not meant to. That is what the Apple Hypercard Script Users guide was intended for. Since I could not find this guide in time to finish my project, I used the Complete Hypercard Reference book instead. In fact, I like it better than the Apple Book which I eventually purchased for the project. But the Apple Book fills in technical holes that the Complete Hypertalk reference was not intended to address. nghiem@walt.cc.utexas.edu !cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!walt!nghiem standard disclaimer. nghiem@walt.cc.utexas.edu !cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!walt!nghiem
jnixon@andrew.ATL.GE.COM (John F Nixon) (04/10/90)
nghiem@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Alex Nghiem) writes: >I found the book [Complete Hypercard] to be really useful. ... >Of course, if you do not take the >time to comprehend what you read or if you have limited programming >ability, this book would not mean anything to you. Hummm, it sounds like CH is a technical treatment of Hypercard, but later we read >But the >Apple Book fills in technical holes that the Complete Hypertalk (sic) >reference was not intended to address. I am curious as to what you believe CH to be; is it a technical book on Hypercard, or is it an introductory reference? It seems much too thick to be a useful introduction, but you seem to imply that it does not contain complete technical details. I would hate to buy CH, and then find I need other reference material (especially in a book that calls itself Complete). -- ---- jnixon@atl.ge.com ...steinmetz!atl.decnet!jnxion
nghiem@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Alex Nghiem) (04/11/90)
In article <258@puma.ge.com> jnixon@andrew.ATL.GE.COM (John F Nixon) writes: >nghiem@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Alex Nghiem) writes: > >>I found the book [Complete Hypercard] to be really useful. ... >>Of course, if you do not take the >>time to comprehend what you read or if you have limited programming >>ability, this book would not mean anything to you. > >Hummm, it sounds like CH is a technical treatment of Hypercard, but later >we read > >>But the >>Apple Book fills in technical holes that the Complete Hypertalk (sic) >>reference was not intended to address. > >I am curious as to what you believe CH to be; is it a technical book on >Hypercard, or is it an introductory reference? It seems much too thick to >be a useful introduction, but you seem to imply that it does not contain >complete technical details. I would hate to buy CH, and then find I need >other reference material (especially in a book that calls itself Complete). No, its not easy reading introductory reference, nor is it a complete technical reference manual. It is rather useful for a programmer who has never used Hypercard before and suddenly finds that he needs to bring up a Hypercard application in a short amount of time. We have the Complete Hypercard Book (Expanded Second Edition) and it appears to be the most used Hypercard book in our lab, judging by the large amount of creases in the spine. I do not know anything about the first edition. You are correct about the title. It is not "complete" in the sense you want. I do not believe I have ever found a book to be 100% complete. I always cross-reference between several texts. (Inside Macintosh for example is definitely not 100% complete) In our lab, we also have Hypertalk Programming (same publisher as Macintosh Revealed) and the Apple Hypercard Script Users Guide. Hypertalk Programming has a nice poster of Hypertalk syntax which I've posted on a wall. The Apple Script Users guide does not appear to be used much, but it is really handy to have because it is Apple's "definitive" description of Hypertalk. Neither the Complete Hypertalk Book nor the Hypertalk Programming has the technical details of the Apple Script User's Guide. Both the Complete Hypercard Book and Hypertalk Programming list the Apple Script User's Guide as a reference (I believe that is all it is meant to be.) When we purchased these texts about a year ago, these appeared to be the best texts we could get in a hurry. In fact, I remember we were lucky because I believe we bought the last copy of the Complete Hypercard at the bookstore. We had to wait for the Apple Script Users Guide. Now, there must be several books on Hypercard at the bookstore that the general user can find useful. nghiem@walt.cc.utexas.edu !cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!walt!nghiem nghiem@walt.cc.utexas.edu !cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!walt!nghiem