xxiaoye@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (01/28/89)
I don't know whether this subject has been discussed here before, since I am a new reader of this group. Sorry if it has been. I am just beginning to write stacks. One of most annoying feature in Hypercard is autosave. AutoSave is often nice when I am in the typing mode, but not when I am in scripting mode. Sometimes when I accidentally make changes to the graphics, scripts, or even button field layouts, I can't revert to the saved one. Especially graphics, having it autosave when quitting the painting mode makes me feel really uncomfortable. I think that it would be really wonderful if we are given autosave as an option. Or, alternatively, when the user level is 2, turn on the autosave, and when it is 5, turn off the auto-save. Does anyone know if apple has thought about modifying this, how about Silicon Beach with its SuperCard ??? "VOX CLAMANTIS IN DESERTO" -- ahh, who else do I speak for! __________________________________________________________________________ Xiaoxia Ye Internet/Bitnet xxiaoye@eleazar.dartmouth.edu Dartmouth College /UUCP: Xiaoxia.Ye@dartmouth.edu
dan@Apple.COM (Dan Allen) (01/30/89)
In article <11985@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> xxiaoye@eleazar.dartmouth.edu writes: >beginning to write stacks. One of most annoying feature in Hypercard >is autosave. AutoSave is often nice when I am in the typing mode, > >Does anyone know if apple has thought about modifying this, how about >Silicon Beach with its SuperCard ??? Autosave, as you call it, is not just a simple little feature that we threw into HyperCard: it is the only way that this HyperCard will ever work, i.e., HyperCard is written in such a way as to consider buttons, fields, scripts, cards, backgrounds, and stacks--in short, everything--as persistant objects that sometimes live in RAM and sometimes live on disk. When you change something in RAM, HyperCard updates the disk VERY shortly thereafter. Only if HyperCard was totally rewritten could such a behavior be taken out of HyperCard. I think its benefits far outweigh its disadvantages. Now what we could do is provide for a way to undo script editing, and to bring back the last button you (perhaps accidentally) deleted, and the like. Such feature enhancements would probably make you and most users happy. Having persistent objects took a lot of time to get working right. Having a built-in object manager allows HyperCard to be fast and flexible. BTW: Save a Copy simply does a raw block read/write of the existing stack to a new file. Dan Allen ** dan@apple.COM (Unix mail) Software Explorer ** ALLEN.DAN (AppleLink) HyperCard Team ** 20525 Mariani Ave. MS 22AE Apple Computer ** Cupertino, CA 95014 *********************************************************** ** Sam: "You know what they say, 'You can kill more ** ** flys with honey than with vinegar.'" ** ** Woody: "I don't mean to butt in, but you can kill ** ** the most with dead squirrels." ** ***********************************************************
SEB@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Scott E Barron) (01/31/89)
In article <24977@apple.Apple.COM>, dan@Apple.COM (Dan Allen) writes: >Now what we could do is provide for a way to undo script editing, and to >bring back the last button you (perhaps accidentally) deleted, and the >like. Such feature enhancements would probably make you and most users >happy. That would be a very nice addition to Hypercard, Dan. >Having persistent objects took a lot of time to get working right. >Having a built-in object manager allows HyperCard to be fast and >flexible. I'm sure the object manager helps make Hypercard faster than it might have been without it. I would not, however, classify Hypercard as "fast". Especially when using it on an AppleShare file server. Hypercard has become an integral part of my computer system, but it could be a bit faster in sorting, searching, etc.
dan@Apple.COM (Dan Allen) (02/04/89)
In article <7027@pucc.Princeton.EDU> SEB@pucc.Princeton.EDU writes: >I'm sure the object manager helps make Hypercard faster than it >might have been without it. I would not, however, classify Hypercard >as "fast". Especially when using it on an AppleShare file server. >Hypercard has become an integral part of my computer system, but it >could be a bit faster in sorting, searching, etc. When I think of HyperCard as fast I think of how it can fly through cards with graphics faster than anything else on the Mac. Have you seen Bill Atkinson's Clip Art demo on a Mac II? It is QUITE impressive. Its sorting does take a while, but it is reasonably fast compared to other disk based databases. And its searching is VERY fast. I know of nothing else that searches as fast. I have the entire King James Bible in a stack and can find text in < 2 seconds. I don't know of anything else that does as well this side of a Connection Machine. Dan Allen ** dan@apple.COM (Unix mail) Software Explorer ** ALLEN.DAN (AppleLink) HyperCard Team ** 20525 Mariani Ave. MS 22AE Apple Computer ** Cupertino, CA 95014 *********************************************************** ** Sam: "You know what they say, 'You can catch more ** ** flys with honey than with vinegar.'" ** ** Woody: "I don't mean to butt in, but you can catch ** ** the most with dead squirrels." ** ***********************************************************