chuq@plaid.Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (04/12/88)
I've decided that HyperCard qualifies for the fasted market niche to
saturate in the history of computers.
I counted my eleventh HyperCard book this weekend. I found my second
magazine dedicated to Hypercard. All this in about eight months?
On top of this, I know of something like four or five books under
development. And every Macintosh magazine seems to be sprouting a HyperCard
column. (Except maybe Mactutor. I haven't seen one in Mactutor yet. Good for
them....).
If I see one more interview of Danny Goodman, I'm gonna fwow up.. No offense
to Danny on this. He's a nice person. He's got a best selling book. But he's
being interviewed by everyone and their sister as the maven of Hypercard,
when all he's done is be the first author of a decent HyperCard book. Why
aren't the interviewing Dan Winkler, or Bill Atkinson, and going directly to
the source? Danny is accesible, but he isn't the same. Once, twice maybe.
But I've seen half a dozen Goodman interviews in half a dozen different
places. And they all seem to say the same thing...
Anyway, if you're a Hypercard user, it's definitely buyer beware. I'f
the books I've seen, I've bought four (I liked three). The rest didn't
pass the "Is there anything new or unusual or interesting?" test. Lots
of people are covering the same things in very similar ways. Lots of
things are going to go out of print. And lots of publishers are going
to take baths.
[For the record, the books I recommend to folks interested
in HyperCard, in relative order of preference, are:
o Carol Kaehler's book "HyperCard Power: Techniques and Scripts"
A nice introduction & philosophy of stack design book. neat stuff
o Danny Goodman's book "The Complete HyperCard Handbook"
The definitive reference, to date.
o Dan Shafer's book "HyperTalk Programming"
Not as strong an introduction as Kaehler's, not as deep a reference
as Goodman's. I'm sure I could replace it with one of the other
half dozen HyperCard books, but I've looked at this one and I
haven't looked at the others enough to replace a safe bet with
a better safe bet. These things cost money, and I'm unwilling to
make an evaluation of something based on skimming it in a store
(beyond, of course, choosing to not buy it).
Magazines are even more fun. I ran into HyperLink Magazine, Vol 1 #1 this
weekend. It's aim seems to be the MacTutor of HyperCard. It's got Dan Shafer
and Carol Kaehler. It's got possibilities, but it's also quite expensive:
$4.95 bi-monthly, $25/year for six issues (from Box 7723, Eugene, Or 97401).
The first issue, like the first issue of HyperAge, shows promise but not a
lot of substance. There's information here, but not enough to get a
recommendation because of the price (unlike HyperAge). I am going to keep
watching it, though, to see if the price goes down or the pages/content goes
up. HyperLink has by far the cleanest and best thought out presentation of
scripts and field/button info I've seen.
HyperCard magazines, right now, have lots of people doing things, with
nobody sticking out of the crowd yet. If I were going to recommend anything,
I'd recommend things in this order:
o Macazine (general mac magazine with lots of interesting stuff
and a strong HyperCard committment)
o Nibble Mac (the "gosh wow computers are neat!" version of
Mactutor. Heavily into MacBasic, with growing committments to
HyperCard and other things. In my eyes, too expensive to buy just
for the HyperCard stuff, but improving. There's also a good series
on Excel that may make it more economical for some folks.
o HyperAge (interesting, potential, but no track record)
o HyperLink Magazine (same as HyperAge but more expensive, so
riskier).
Beyond that, whatever you happen to already read probably is doing
HyperCard. I can't see any reason to specially subscribe to general
magazines for the HC stuff unless you want the magazine already....
I'm biased fairly strongly against the "magazine on a disk" concept, so
you're very unlikely to ever see me mention one of these. Personally, I
find them generally rather silly and shallow.
Now, if this doesn't start a discussion, I don't know what will......
chuq
Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ
Things without all remedy should be without regard.
What's done is done. (Shakespeare, Macbeth)