jlc@atux01.UUCP (J. Collymore) (05/23/89)
I would like to offer some suggestions for changes to HyperCard/HyperTalk:
1- Rather than just have "the number of cards," also allow for ANY argument
such as "the number of cards with short name x," or "the number of cards
with field x," or "the number of buttons with short name x" or etc. You get
the idea.
2- As for visual effects, how about a VERTICAL BARN DOOR (open & close), a
SPIRAL (open & close) (this would be similar to the current square iris, but
it would be in a spiralling format), a horizontal (and maybe vertical) WEDGE
shape (right & left, up & down if vertical)
3- Allow a controlling argument for the "find" command, so rather than having it
search the entire stack, be able to limit it to searching SPECIFIC
backgrounds, cards, and fields (e.g., find "word x" in field x of bg x, OR
find "word x" in all cards with short name x).
4- Convert command that allows you to convert: a) seconds back to ANY date
format, b) seconds or date to a JULIAN date (also, allow the julian date to
be from either January 1 to December 31 OR December 31 to January 1).
5- A FULLY COMPREHENSIVE HyperTalk programming reference book and ON-LINE
"Help" section (like pages 569-745 of the Waite Group's reference section in
their book: "Tricks of the HyperTalk Masters").
6- Benchmarking XCMDs so we can see how fast/efficient our scripts are, thus
helping the novice and expert write more efficient scripts.
7- Allow HyperCard stacks run independently of HyperCard being on the disk,
just like the upcoming SuperCard stacks from Silicon Beach will (supposedly)
allow you to do.
8- Include an improved MacinTalk driver so that we can add speech to stacks.
This feature could be exceptionally useful in education, and to the disabled.
9- Create an icon editor/copier that will allow one to create button icons, or
copy them from clip art, or modify them, and copy them as an icon resource
into the stack (similar to the Icon Editor in HyperTools #1 by Softworks,
Inc.).
10- Allow buttons to show their name with a maximum of 2 line in either
horizontal OR vertical format:
lt
ih
ki
es
or horizontally: like
this
11- "Draw" features as well as paint features, ESPECIALLY being able to grab
graphics as objects.
These are all the features I can think of at the moment. I hope that you can
include them in version 2.0 of HyperCard.
Jim Collymorejlc@atux01.UUCP (J. Collymore) (05/24/89)
In addition to some of my other suggestions, how about having: 1- Dialog boxes that can be any size the user/scripter wants. 2- Allowing more than 3 buttons (including the "Cancel" button) in a Dialog box. Jim Collymore