rburns%master@Sun.COM (Randy Burns) (01/24/89)
What have folks heard about hypercard clones running under MS-DOS(or
OS/2)?
I've heard several rumors:
1) That Microsoft was planning to market a compatible product, but was
stopped by the infamous lawsuit from going through with their plans.
2) That several other MS-DOS pompatible cle clones are in the works and
will be on the market soon (I guess the strategy is to overwhelm
Apple's attorney's by sheer force of numbers.
In the Atkinson interview in Goodman's book, I seem to remember reading
that the Hypercard file formats were going to be made public-even if this
encouraged clones. Has this ever been done? What portions of Hypercard
does Apple regard as particularly proprietary?
I would be very interested in anything anyone knows about this.
Note: The above opinions are mine alone and not those of my
consulting client, Sun Microsystems.dan@Apple.COM (Dan Allen) (01/25/89)
In article <86599@sun.uucp> rburns%master@Sun.COM (Randy Burns) writes: >What have folks heard about hypercard clones running under MS-DOS(or >OS/2)? > >In the Atkinson interview in Goodman's book, I seem to remember reading >that the Hypercard file formats were going to be made public-even if this >encouraged clones. Has this ever been done? What portions of Hypercard >does Apple regard as particularly proprietary? The first question is certainly the easier one to answer: there are several MS-DOS and Macintosh clones of HyperCard under construction. The Silicon Beach program called "SuperCard" for the Macintosh is probably the one that will make it to market first. I will reserve judgment on these products as I have not seen them. The second question can only be definitively answered by Apple's legal department. We (the engineers) would like to release more information about the HyperCard file format and the like, but marketing and legal are not too excited about such things. Several people and companies have already reverse engineered the format to a large degree, for what that's worth. I guess the main areas of HyperCard that Bill and Apple are particularly proud of (read: want to keep secret) are the fast find and graphics compression algorithms. Apple legal would probably also like to see HyperTalk as proprietary, but I do not think that languages can be kept proprietary. HyperTalk is to Apple as Postscript is to Adobe: a competitive advantage whose ideas can be copied, but a particular expression of an idea is protected by copyright law. Any one with detailed questions should talk to Apple's very busy law department. I PERSONALLY (NOT APPLE) think that we should publish the sources to HyperCard, as they would be instructive, like Knuth's typesetting books. Unfortunately, as long as HyperCard remains an Apple competitive advantage, such information will remain highly secret. Too bad... Dan Allen HyperCard Team Apple Computer