SHULMAN@sdr.slb.COM (Jeffrey Shulman) (08/15/87)
Date: Sat 15 Aug 87 12:13:04-GMT From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR> Subject: Delphi Mac Digest V3 #39 To: Delphi-List: ; Message-ID: <556024384.0.SHULMAN@SDR> Mail-System-Version: <VAX-MM(218)+TOPSLIB(129)@SDR> Delphi Mac Digest Friday, January 1, 1904 Volume 3 : Issue 39 Today's Topics: Re: Re: PopUp menus Bill Campbell's Expo Keynote Speech Bill Atkinson talks about HyperCard ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: BRECHER Subject: Re: Re: PopUp menus Date: 14-AUG 23:06 MUGS Online To: mendozag@pur-ee.UUCP (Grado) Subject: Re: Re: PopUp menus > Has anybody used the function TrackPopUp from INFO-MAC developed > by Steve Brecher? (MPW-TRACKPOPUP-SAMPLECODE.HQX). Yes. > It requires a bunch of Pascal-ish macros he did not include in the > distribution file and which are "Loaded" from a symbol table called > SBMacs.d (Steve Brechers Macros I presume). As originally distributed, the package contains an assembly listing which shows macro expansions. Perhaps the listing file did not get to INFO-MAC from Delphi. Regardless, note that SBMacs.d is a dump of two macro files: one is very similar to ProgStructMacs, which is distributed with MPW 2.0; the other is a small set of convenience macros such as Push and Pop. ------------------------------ From: PEABO Subject: Bill Campbell's Expo Keynote Speech Date: 14-AUG 23:55 Business Mac This is a report on the Thursday keynote speech at the Macworld Expo. Bill Campbell spoke for about 45 minutes. This report was prepared by Peter Olson (PEABO on DELPHI) and any inaccuracies are due to my transcription of the substance of the speech, which I have done in my own words to a large extent (I'm not a stenographer!). If you would like to post this or reprint it, please do so in its entirety. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Campbell walked up to the podium and introduced himself as the new President of Claris, the company Apple has formed to take over application software development: This is my first public appearance since Claris was created, and I want to share with you my view of the industry. I'm pretty sure all of you are cranked up now by seeing products such as HyperCard, and we are too, as soon-to-be Apple developers. Now, I know you'd all like to hear something about what Claris will be doing, and I hate to disappoint you but you won't hear any leaks from the top here today. What I want to do is clear up any confusion about what is Claris and what will we be doing. [In the next few paragraphs, when Bill says "we" he is referring to Apple Computer, not Claris.] First of all, let me explain why Claris was formed. Apple's software strategy has not been clear the past few years. We have had five strategic products: Appleworks, MacWrite, MacPaint, MacProject, and MacDraw. A lot of us thought Apple should bring new products to market in order to push the technology forward. MacWrite and MacPaint were very well done as ground-breaking applications. I myself was not in favor of aggressive development by Apple, because I thought that Appleworks, for example, had nearly locked out any competition in word processing, spreadsheets, and databases for the Apple // line. But within Apple we (Jean-Louis Gassee, Mike Spindler, Larry Tesler, and I) believed very strongly that it was necessary for someone to be publishing break-through applications. 4th Dimension from ACI was a product we felt Apple should label, and the product was even being seeded, but Omnis, Helix, and Ashton-Tate were very concerned that we would be taking away their business. We decided that the threat to our third party developers was too great, so we turned 4D back to ACI [and from there it has been picked up by Guy Kawasaki's new company Acius]. We decided that Apple should get out of the software application business, and we prepared a paper for John Sculley which outlined 3 ways this could be done: * We could sell the products we had individually. * We could sell the products as a group. * We could spin off the products as a kernel for a new company we would form. Al Eisenstadt (Senior V.P. in development) recommended the third choice, with the addition that we should do it right and make sure the new company was adequately funded. [Bill now begins to use "we" to refer to Claris.] What this means for Apple is that there is now another company with a very strong focus toward Macintosh software development. The primary mission of Claris is to produce innovative software and market it for the Macintosh, first and best. And secondarily, we are very interested in the cottage industry of small developers with bright ideas, who we feel will be a good source for future Macintosh products. We will be developing, publishing and SUPPORTING innovative software for Apple products. Early on, after the news of the Apple software spinoff became public knowledge, Guy Kawasaki was quoted in the San Jose Mercury-News as saying the new company should be named BCIUS, for "Bill Campbell Inherits Used Software". Well, we went back to the Latin and came up with CLARUS meaning "Campbell-Labelled Apple-Rejected Used Software" but we decided to change the U to an I for Inspired! We recognize that just having Appleworks, MacWrite, MacPaint, MacProject, and MacDraw is not a strategy for success, but that's what we are starting out with. The difference is that we are adding support. This is the first phase of building Claris. The second phase is to make key acquisitions of new software products and to begin development. It is here that we will be making key strategic decisions about build or buy. The third phase is to identify key technologies that we need to bring in-house. We do not intend to be just a quick-turnaround publishing company. We believe that great products start with great ideas. One of the things that will be different about Claris from Apple is support. In the old days, you went to your Apple dealer, bought your Mac with MacWrite and MacPaint, and that was the end of it. You were on your own except for occasional upgrades you got by taking your disk into your dealer. We will change that completely. There are a few more things you should expect to see from us. One is innovative marketing. We are going to have a very clear idea of our target market segment and how to bring new electronic metaphors to it. We are going to have a strong international presence from day one. Localization is an important competitive weapon. Yet, there will be some tremendous challenges ahead of us. It is true that we don't have a base of tremendous new technology (yet). Our MIS support, distribution channels, finances, and strategy are not built up yet. We need to formulate our acquisition strategy, and we need to be sure we don't overlook what Apple has taken so much advantage of: serendipity. Here are the key questions as I see it: Why have there been no example of portfolio companies that have made it? We think it can be successful if you have hit products. What is the relationship of Claris to Apple? We will be a wholly-owned subsidiary, which Apple will fund up to the moment of separation. John Sculley is committed however, to making Claris independent of Apple as quickly as possible. We are going to move out to Mountain View this fall, with separate people, payroll, and benefits by October 1, and by January 1 we will have separate MIS, distribution, and so on, though we will still be owned by Apple. Dave Winer [of Living Videotex] keeps saying "Claris is Apple, Claris is Apple" but I disagree. Don't expect Claris to have any more relationship to Apple than any other third party. We are asking you third parties to trust us in this, John Sculley and myself. We realize this is a sensitive situation and our integrity is on the line. Some people have been asking, why didn't you get 4th Dimension? 4th Dimension is not related to us. It was the catalyst that caused the idea of Claris to become important, but it was already done before Claris. What is important to us is the future. We are going to be a major player, putting in place a foundation and building blocks. The three things I see as being important are consistency, standards, and communication. Consistency is for the users. We will have no need to compromise our programs in the interest of being compatible with the IBM PC. We are committed to the Macintosh world. We will give users what they need, such as software which adapts to their needs. Some of this will emerge over time as we acquire new products, and some will be created by us. For example, should a spelling checker be only a part of a word processor, or should it be available where ever needed? We think MultiFinder will pave the way to a much greater consistency between products. Standards are reluctantly adopted, but much of todays success is due to coexistence with standards. New standards emerge every day (for instance the TIFF standard developed by Microsoft and Aldus). We believe that Claris must get involved in the making of standards. dBASE III and 1-2-3 are standards in the IBM world, and obviously there must be data interchange. In the Macintosh world, MacWrite and MacPaint are file standards. Communication is crucial to the workgroup and host system environments, for example IBM and DEC. In tomorrow's environment, communications must recognize software which is in other environments, so we can have true workgroup computing. Claris will not be an overnight success; you will have to judge us over time. We have the "BCIUS" products today. The products we are yet to acquire will define what we will become, and the technologies we bring on will make us a formidable force in the future. Forming Claris has been a major step for Apple; it has high visibility, high expectations, and it is a different road from what Apple was traveling before. We are going to enhance what we have, market well, and distribute world-wide. We have a good team, fervor, love of our products, and the deep pockets of our parent company. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------- Q: Why is Claris not publishing HyperCard? A: I think Apple has positioned HyperCard as system software. This is very believable, despite what some people have been saying. This product is so great it will ultimately be good for all developers. Q: How do you intend to qualify small software houses for partnerships? A: We are going to look for holes in our existing product line, and look for innovative technology. When we first were formed, we were inundated by people wanting us to look at their products, but things have settled down a bit now. Write us or call us. We are very open to good ideas. What we want right now is products which have a broad horizontal application. We're interested in business, education, and scientific/engineering products in particular. Q: Do you see an attack on the problems of support? A: YES. We think support is a key element of the equation. We want to be the Mercedes-Benz of support. Look for example how well Microsoft has been doing with support recently. What we expect to do is to train the dealers for the sales transaction, but offer after-sale support ourselves. Q: What about the special relationship with Apple that vendors like Microsoft have (seeing new hardware in advance of its release)? A: I hope Claris gets every bit as good a deal as Bill Gates. Most major third party developers do have a very close relationship with Apple. If anything, I think the concern has been that Claris would be too close, but again I want to emphasize that both Apple and I are committed to being fair and trustworthy about this. Q: Will there be a stock offering? A: We don't know yet how we will become independent. We may spin off the company to the existing Apple shareholders, or may have an initial public offering. Q: Will you be selling HyperCard stackware? A: We don't know yet. Probably not, because what we need to do is build our own core technology. We want to focus on that, and not stackware. I could see doing something with stackware for the university market. Q: In line with your independence from Apple, when will you annouce your first product with NeXT, Inc.? A: Well, I had breakfast with Steve Jobs recently, but no, we aren't in any strategic relationship with his company. Q: The products you have are perceived as being entry level, do you plan to raise the level? A: Yes, we will follow the increased power of Apple hardware. But, the word processing market is naturally tiered. There is always a place for products like MacWrite and WriteNow. We may be on both tiers for some products, maybe only on the high tier for some products. We will be making our products better. It's a wonderful opportunity. Q: It seems that Apple software products have been subsidized by the hardware. Will Claris have to raise prices? A: We're going to have to have a P&L statement to meet, and we have to look good for investment companies. We need to price our products for growth and profitability. Support is going to cost us money, so the prices will probably have to be a bit higher. ------------------------------ From: PEABO Subject: Bill Atkinson talks about HyperCard Date: 14-AUG 23:55 Creative Pursuits This is a report on the Thursday wrap-up session at the Macworld Expo. Bill Atkinson showed off HyperCard, which John Sculley and Jean-Louis Gassee have both described as the most exciting thing since the introduction of the Macintosh. This report was prepared by Peter Olson (PEABO on DELPHI) and any inaccuracies are due to my transcription of the substance of the speech, which I have done in my own words to a large extent (I'm not a stenographer!). If you would like to post this or reprint it, please do so in its entirety. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Atkinson's talks during this Expo have drawn such crowds that the management has routinely opened up more space, and this final talk was no exception. Bill brought the rest of the HyperCard team with him (there were quite a few Apple employees walking around with the Hypercard "bowling shirts" on -- blue with yellow collars, a name over the lapel, and on the back the word HYPERCARD at the top, a large black circle and diagonally rising over it the legend "Acme Dot Co."). Chris Espinosa, the HyperCard product manager, began by introducing Danny Goodman, author of "The Complete HyperCard Handbook" published by Bantam, and also the author of two extensive stackware products from Activision called "Business Class" and "Focal Point". Goodman, who was not and still is not a "programmer", was involved with the HyperCard development for about 18 months. Chris then turned the stage over to Bill. [applause from the audience] ------------------------------------------------------- The Macintosh Dream is about getting the power of the personal computer into the hands of individuals. So far what we have accomplished is putting the use of applications into people's hands, by using the graphical interface and metaphors in a consistent way, but this had made it increasingly difficult to be a creator. The split between authors and users keeps increasing. HyperCard is a software erector set. It's a box of parts, bolts, and examples (just like in the erector set brochure). HyperCard uses the same technique to teach people how to use it. You start with an example you see and try making it yourself. Then you try changing it a bit, and eventually you know it well enough to branch off on your own. [ At this point, they killed the lights and the presentation became predominantly visual and hence difficult to explain in words in this report. Bill showed an expanded version of the stackware which is on the HyperCard release disk. Some fragments that come to mind are: HyperCard organizes data into stacks of cards. Each card is exactly the size of the original Mac screen, so you can be guaranteed that anything you produce on one kind of Macintosh can be viewed on any other. Cards in any stack can be linked associatively to cards in any other stack. Each card can have pictures, text, and buttons with any iconic shape or ordinary legend associated. It is like a superset of the usual Mac interface. A variety of text formats is allowed, including scrolling text. Data compression is so efficient that a thousand clip-art screens can fit in a meg and a half of memory, and on a Mac II the flipping from one card to another is very fast. (Even on a Mac Plus it's no slouch.) Flipping between cards is controlled by a 'visual effect' specification that allows for fades, wipes, and so on as cues to the kind of linkage between cards. There is a built-in painting system like MacPaint but with a lot of improvements. You can still import and export bit-mapped images in Paint format, and HyperCard is not intended to replace MacPaint at all. (One of the improvements that sticks in my mind is the ability to pick up an arbitrary shaped piece of an existing image by painting a mask over top of it temporarily to define the bits to be picked up, and then being able to move the picked up image around the screen.) An object-oriented language called HyperTalk (developed by Dan Winkler) is integrated into the system. There is an inheritance among objects represented by buttons, screens, background buttons and screens, stacks, and HyperCard itself. The English-language-like syntax has provisions for event and message processing among the objects and is a modern structured language. HyperTalk can read and write TEXT files for importing or exporting from other database or word processing software. There are built-in procedures for sorting cards in a stack according to field values. There are various levels of access to stacks, including the low levels required to use a stack, and higher levels which allow painting, authoring ( creating structure using links), and scripting (writing in HyperTalk). Although stacks cannot be copy protected as such, they can be password protected in order to keep people from getting to the higher levels of access. The system is perfectly adapted to building by example. Bill said that HyperCard is like an erector set where you never have to worry about running out of pieces. You can copy button definitions from the examples and "idea stacks" provided with the system and they paste in complete with the associated scripting so you have a functioning button right away. You can also copy entire stacks for incorporation into your own designs, or you can pick out clip art just like you have always been able to do with MacPaint. At the end of the presentation, Bill continued talking. ] We have made 20,000 copies and sent them out the distribution channels this week. If you buy a new Mac Plus, Mac SE, or Mac II you get HyperCard for free. Otherwise, you can buy it for $49 including disks and a manual. In about 60 days we expect to begin shipping international versions. HyperCard does require 128K ROMs and at least one megabyte of memory. If you use it with MultiFinder, you will need more than a megabyte. We recommend a two-floppy system or a floppy and hard disk. There is 800K of built-in help, so you will need the disk space if you use the help. The four disks you get are a floppy-based HyperCard boot, a setup disk for installing HyperCard on your hard disk, a disk of examples and ideas, and the help disk. [ Chris Espinosa then brought out the rest of the HyperCard development team, to a standing ovation from the crowd. He then handed the mike back to Bill, saying that he thought most of the audience questions would be for Bill. ] Q: Does HyperCard support MIDI? A: We couldn't anticipate all possible uses of HyperCard, so we put in hooks so you can call any 68000 code you want. You need to compile the code as separate resources of type XCMD or XFCM and install it in your stack. That's how you would get MIDI support. Q: What is the relative performance of a Mac Plus compared to a Mac II? A: Card flipping on the Plus is about half as fast as the II. Q: Can you launch applications or documents from inside HyperCard? A: Yes, and when the you quit the application, it comes back to the same card you launched from. You can also print the same way. There is an example stack which lets you organize your hard disk and automatically update the catalog of documents when you want. Q: Where did the HyperCard idea come from? A: QuickFile/Rolodex were very early ancestors of the HyperCard. I have been thinking about the problems of authoring software on the Macintosh for a long time, and this is what I came up with. Q: How would you import or export to another database? A: You can read or write text files using HyperTalk, and you could have a card with several conversion buttons on it, for SYLK or DIF formats for example. Q: How do you access a specific card in the stack? A: You can bring up cards by position in the stack (first, last, next, previous, or card number in the stack), or by name, or by an internally assigned ID number that never changes. Q: Can you have a HyperCard stack on AppleShare accessed by several users at once? A: Not right now. The stacks are opened read-write for one user only, but I'm working on that for a future release. Q: Could you design a spreadsheet or database program this way? A: No, it would work but it would be too slow. HyperCard is an organizing tool for personal database, not a development tool. Q: Is Finder still necessary? A: Yes. Finder is highly tuned for its purpose, manipulating files. You might consider using HyperCard as a very sophisticated MiniFinder replacement though! HyperCard works very well with MultiFinder (though you need more than the one meg minimum memory to run it this way). It's great to be able to flip back and forth between your word processing and a HyperCard stack in just a second, and not have to break your train of thought waiting 30 seconds to launch. Q: What are the limits to stack size? A: We haven't put any arbitrary limits in (that is, you'll run out of disk space before you hit the limits in the program). You can have up to 16 million cards in a stack, and up to half a gigabyte of data. ------------------------------ End of Delphi Mac Digest ************************ -------