rieman@boulder.Colorado.EDU (John Rieman) (05/24/89)
What's the consensus as to the best reference book for Hypercard/talk? I'm looking for something concise, ala UNIX man pages -- command name, parameters, brief description, maybe a simple example, cross-references. What I find in the bookstores are mostly wordy, chatty accounts that seem to be written as much to entertain as to enlighten (one book I looked at today started by telling how the author first met Bill Atkinson). I'm sure a lot of people enjoy that kind of writing, but I just don't have time to plow through a thousand pages of wittiness to extract a hundred pages of information. Recommendations? -John Rieman
taylorj@yvax.byu.edu (05/26/89)
I know of four HyperCard reference books. Only one of them is any good. It's called simply "HyperTalk," by Lon Poole, from Microsoft Press, ISBN 1-55616-137-3, $5.95. It's a small pocket-sized reference book, organized alphabetically, well laid-out, lots of useful information, not too many errors. If you do much HyperTalk programming, you need this book. Jim Taylor Microcomputer Support for Curriculum | Brigham Young University | Bitnet: taylorj@byuvax.bitnet 101 HRCB, Provo, UT 84602 | Internet: taylorj@yvax.byu.edu I have no connection with Microsoft, Apple, Bill Atkinson, Bill the Cat, or anyone else mentioned or not mentioned in this posting.
dan@Apple.COM (Dan Allen) (05/26/89)
In article <617taylorj@yvax.byu.edu> taylorj@yvax.byu.edu writes: > >I know of four HyperCard reference books. Only one of them is any good. It's >called simply "HyperTalk," by Lon Poole, from Microsoft Press, ISBN >1-55616-137-3, $5.95. It's a small pocket-sized reference book, organized >alphabetically, well laid-out, lots of useful information, not too many errors. >If you do much HyperTalk programming, you need this book. > > >Jim Taylor >Microcomputer Support for Curriculum | >Brigham Young University | Bitnet: taylorj@byuvax.bitnet >101 HRCB, Provo, UT 84602 | Internet: taylorj@yvax.byu.edu > >I have no connection with Microsoft, Apple, Bill Atkinson, Bill the Cat, or >anyone else mentioned or not mentioned in this posting. I do have connections with Apple and Bill Atkinson: I am a member of the HyperCard engineering team and I too think that Lon Poole's book is great. I use it all the time! And talk about bang for the buck: $5.95 is a very reasonable price, so reasonable that I bought two copies: one near the Mac, one at bedside. Highly recommended. Dan Allen Apple Computer