csaron@garnet.berkeley.edu (Aron Roberts,,2251,,YH20) (01/02/88)
From a recent press release (on CompuServe's new APPHYPER SIG) ...
MESA, AZ, December 21, 1987--Symmetry Corporation, a Macintosh software
developer announced today that it will be releasing HyperDA*, a HyperCard*
desk accessory at the San Francisco MacWorld show in January.
HyperDA allows the Macintosh user to open HyperCard stacks and browse
through their contents all while using another application. HyperDA
understands a subset of the HyperTalk language allowing most stacks
to operate as they do in HyperCard with active buttons and fields.
Selection tools allow the user to copy text or graphics to the clipboard
from a stack which can then be pasted into another application. A
find command similar to HyperCard's is also provided allowing a stack
to be searched for a particular word. Other features include a window
mode allowing a stack to appear in a growable, scrollable window which
can be moved anywhere on the screen.
HyperDA can be used on any Macintosh with 512K of memory or more.
This is significant because previously, owners of Macintosh computers
with less than 1MB of memory could not benefit from information available
in HyperCard stacks.
"We expect a lot of interest in HyperDA," said Scott Shwarts, President
of Symmetry. "Not only does it provide easy access to information
in HyperCard stacks but it opens the market for stackware to the 512K
user," he added.
According to the company, HyperDA will also be made available to other
developers under license for use in on-line documentation and help
systems.
###
HyperDA, PictureBase and Acta are trademarks of Symmetry Corporation.
HyperCard, HyperTalk and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer,
Inc.
-----
Disclaimer: I have no connection, financial or otherwise, with Symmetry
Corporation.
Aron Roberts Tolman Microcomputer Facility
1535 Tolman Hall, University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720 (415) 642-2251
csaron@garnet.Berkeley.EDU CSARON@UCBCMSA.BITNETdlw@hpsmtc1.HP.COM (David Williams) (01/15/88)
After having played with a version of Hyperda, it is of limited value. 1) Visual effects are not supported. 2) Sound effects are not supported. 3) Hyperda supports an extremely limited subset of Hypertalk. 4) It is a neat concept (ie a good Hack), but all it would seem to do in my opinion is whet the appetite of a 512k user to upgrade to a plus before it is too late (why spend $59 for a product that has less functionality than Hypercard which costs $49?), or to make a 1meg +/SE/II user long for more memory to run full hypercard under multifinder. 5) The fact that visual/sound effects are not present really dilutes much of the pizzazz of what Hypercard is about! 6) What would have been nicer would have been an Xcmd based product that enhanced the design of stackware(ie windows for editing scripts rather than a dialog box, and sort of a source code debugger feature where you could have a window up that shows the hypertalk code being that is currently executing while a script is in action (a la Lightspeed Pascal). Save your money for memory upgrades or in the case of 512k users upgrade to a Mac+ or 512ke with more memory! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- David L. Williams dlw@hpda Hewlett Packard, Cupertino Ca Software Development Technology Laboratory Distributed Computing Environment Project Mailstop: 47LR "Sinanju, buddy -- the real stuff"