moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) (08/26/87)
Was at the Mac dBUG HyperCard SIG last night, where several Apple and APDA
people showed up to introduce the program to the membership. They were a
little surprised to find that the membership was already programming some
fairly neat HyperCard applications, but it was all very interesting.
Anyway, people were talking about what was needed (and what was available)
in HyperCard documentation, and I thought I might summarize this for the
benefit of the net...
First, as most of you know, they on-line Help is tremendous (assuming you
have a hard drive to store it on), and that alone makes much of the added
documentation a non-necessity, i.e. you can figure out a lot of this from
the Help program and the examples. Best to jump right in...
1) Apple's HyperCard Manual
AVAILABILITY: Comes with HyperCard
Usual Apple manual for the absolute novice. Basically works at getting you
familiar with the HyperCard style, which seems a little redundant, since
HyperCard is so self-explanatory. NO Script information in the back.
RECOMMENDATION: Since it comes with the package, you might as well keep it.
:-)
2) THE COMPLETE HYPERCARD HANDBOOK by Danny Goodman
AVAILABILITY: Should be in the stores by next Monday
Lots of programming examples (I hear ~600 pages) and programming
instruction, BUT... not complete. Apparently it doesn't have some of the
external application script commands in it, though it has most of the
others. Several people there had seen copies, and were giving it pretty
average reviews.
3) APDA's HyperCard Script Language Guide
AVAILABILITY: On hold -- hopefully shipping in two weeks. They're taking
back orders (this is APDA -- they're used to it)
Just what they say it is -- a reference manual. Just the facts, ma'am.
Nothing fancy, but the various HyperCard Gurus who looked over it said, yup,
it's all there.
For myself, I figure I'll probably buy the APDA manual and leave it at that
-- there's enough PD sample stackware out there already that it's pretty
easy to figure out what's going on.
Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever seen ANYTHING like HyperCard for
ramping-up speed? I've got non-programmers (and I mean NON-PROGRAMMERS) who
have been at it for a week and a half, and are providing me with very nice
alternatives to Oasis and PowerStation and twiddling with their own
presentation managers. Absolutely astounding...
[Lester Maddox talking to Prime Minister Botha of
South Africa]
"Lemme show ya the odds, Sparky... In yer country,
ya got 14 million black people, and 3 million white
people.
Now, does the name `Custer' mean anything to you?"
-- Robin Williams
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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