psrc@pegasus.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (06/03/90)
> A faculty member on our campus has asked about hypertext software for IBM > clones. They're interested in any type (PD, shareware, and commercial). > They said that they'd like graphics to be included in their data. > Paul Motsuk, motsuk@cua.bitnet, motsuk%cuavax.dnet@netcon.cua.edu I've read a little bit about such packages; I don't have any direct experience. I can give you some pointers. IBM has jumped into this market with a product called LinkWay. All I know about this is that it's described in a book called IBM LINKWAY: HYPERMEDIA FOR THE PC (written by Richard Harrington, Bill Fancher, and Peter Black, and published by John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-51298-2). Another Wiley book, DESIGNING INTELLIGENT FRONT ENDS FOR BUSINESS SOFTWARE (Dan Shafer, ISBN 0-471-60114-4), describes two expert system shells with graphics and hypertext capabilities: Paperback Software's VP Expert, and Knowledge Pro from Knowledge Garden. The latter company also has a version of that software for MS-Windows. Guide, from Owl, is another Windows-based hypertext system. I found a few shareware hypertext systems in the Public Brand Software catalog. One (disk TO3.0) has two programs named KnowledgePro and TextPro; the latter is the run-time module for the former. These are somehow related to Knowledge Garden's products, but I'm not sure how. There's no registration fee (it's listed as "bannerware"). Black Magic (version 1.5, TO1a.0, TO1b.0, TO1c.0, $40-80 registration fee) "works best in EGA, but CGA and Hercules graphics are supported". It requires 640K and a hard disk, and a mouse is recommended. Yes, it supports graphics, as well as EMS memory, and has some sort of programmer's interface. PBS gives this package a trophy, meaning that it's one of the "best program[s] anywhere for the task". Note that this comes on three disks. Disk RD31.0, Reg-in-a-Box, is a Black Magic hypertext application, complete with the MagRead display program; it's "the official rules for underground storage tanks (part 280 of the EPA regulations". This is PBS's sixth most popular disk. Strange. . . . There's also Hypershell (disk TO9.0, fifty pound (!) registration fee), which doesn't appear to support graphics. My source is the Public Brand Software catalog; they're a good source of public domain and shareware software. They're not the cheapest around, but their catalog has saved me lots of time. They list the shareware registration fees up front, so you know what you'll be getting into if you like the product. They test nearly everything (and check it all for viruses), and they're an approved vendor of the Association of Shareware Professionals. They haven't made a mistake in any of my orders. PBS is at P.O. Box 51315, Indianapolis, IN, USA 46251, 1-800-426-3475 (voice, U.S.A.), 1-800-727-3476 (voice, Indiana), 1-317-856-7571 (Indianapolis), all twenty-four hours a day for orders or requests for catalogs. They also have a business phone (1-317-856-4144), and a $50/year BBS (1-317-856-2087). They take personal checks, Visa, MasterCard, money orders, COD ($5 charge), and P.O.s for at least $65. They charge $5/disk (5.25" or 3.5"), plus $5/order. (The comp.sys.ibm.pc folks are probably tired of hearing about this place from me, but the catalog contains answers to a lot of net.requests.) Paul S. R. Chisholm, AT&T Bell Laboratories att!pegasus!psrc, psrc@pegasus.att.com, AT&T Mail !psrchisholm I'm not speaking for the company, I'm just speaking my mind.
rwb@castle.ed.ac.uk (Richard Bingham) (06/03/90)
In article <4652@pegasus.ATT.COM> psrc@pegasus.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) writes: >> A faculty member on our campus has asked about hypertext software for IBM ... >> Paul Motsuk, motsuk@cua.bitnet, motsuk%cuavax.dnet@netcon.cua.edu > >I've read a little bit about such packages; I don't have any direct >experience. I can give you some pointers. > >IBM has jumped into this market with a product called LinkWay. All I >know about this is that it's described in a book called IBM LINKWAY: >HYPERMEDIA FOR THE PC (written by Richard Harrington, Bill Fancher, and >Peter Black, and published by John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-51298-2). ... ... has a version of that software for MS-Windows. Guide, from Owl, >is another Windows-based hypertext system. ... >Paul S. R. Chisholm, AT&T Bell Laboratories Thanks for the useful review of what is available. I can report that I have tried Linkway and Guide. Linkway is being sold in the U.K. by IBM at a price (to educational institutes) which makes most shareware seem rather expensive. Their price was almost too low to refuse! However I didn't like it very much as it seems a bit clumsy to use - in particular the text editor is a pain, particularly if you try and import text from other files. I never did solve how to import pre-drawn graphics - although the manual is very readable, it often lacks essential details when things start to go wrong. However it does have the advantage of not requiring MS-Windows, so that it will run on a fairly basic PC and in most screen modes (though in MCGA mode it doesn't look too nice). I much prefer Guide, though it definitely helps to have a powerful processor. I started with Guide on an ordinary XT clone, and it was *slow*. Now I have it on a 386 machine, with 8 MB RAM, and it goes very nicely indeed. Richard Bingham -- Richard W. Bingham, Dept. of Veterinary Pathology, University of Edinburgh, Summerhall, Edinburgh, EH9 1QH, Scotland Tel: +44 31 667 1011 Ext. 5281 FAX: +44 31 668 4341 R.Bingham@ed.ac.uk (or) R.Bingham%ed.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk
stone@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Glenn Stone) (06/05/90)
> A faculty member on our campus has asked about hypertext software for IBM > clones. They're interested in any type (PD, shareware, and commercial). > They said that they'd like graphics to be included in their data. > > Paul Motsuk, motsuk@cua.bitnet, motsuk%cuavax.dnet@netcon.cua.edu Try: HyperBase $99 Cogent Software (508-875-6553) HyperTies $349? Cognetics Corp (609-799-5005) IBM LinkWay $110 IBM Educ Systems (404-238-3245) KnowledgePro $495 Knowledge Garden (518-766-3000) Houdini & related systems, various prices MaxThink (415-428-0104) Guide (of course) WildCard ? Spinnaker Corp. Some of these are discussed in the Mar 20, 1989, issue of PC-Week; I'm not sure if they are all still funct.
jwi@cbnewsj.att.com (Jim Winer @ AT&T, Middletown, NJ) (06/05/90)
> > Paul Motsuk, motsuk@cua.bitnet, motsuk%cuavax.dnet@netcon.cua.edu > > A faculty member on our campus has asked about hypertext software for IBM > > clones. They're interested in any type (PD, shareware, and commercial). > > They said that they'd like graphics to be included in their data. Glenn Stone writes: > Try: > HyperBase $99 Cogent Software (508-875-6553) > HyperTies $349? Cognetics Corp (609-799-5005) > IBM LinkWay $110 IBM Educ Systems (404-238-3245) > KnowledgePro $495 Knowledge Garden (518-766-3000) > Houdini & related systems, various prices MaxThink (415-428-0104) > Guide (of course) > WildCard ? Spinnaker Corp. > Some of these are discussed in the Mar 20, 1989, issue of PC-Week; > I'm not sure if they are all still funct. Also try HyperPad $150? Brightbill-Roberts & Co BookTool ? Run version included with Windows 3.0 Jim Winer -- jwi@mtfme.att.com -- Opinions not represent employer. ------------------------------------------------------------------ "No, no: the purpose of language is to cast spells on other people ..." Lisa S Chabot
MUHRTH@tubvm.cs.tu-berlin.de (Thomas Muhr) (06/06/90)
There is one PD hypertext sytem with advanced but unstable features.
It supports EGA-grafics, mouse, import of graphics (a snapshot prog for
EGA-screens is included), 4 button-types including buttons embedded in
graphics and calling other DOS-programs, some good examples including an
online manual and a commented map of the USA.
The name is Black Magic and can be obtained from the SIMTEL library as
msdos/hypertext/magic15a.arc and ...magic15b.arc.
We are hoping that NTERGAID will release a version which doesn't hang after
a few keystrokes........
-------
Thomas Muhr, Technical University of Berlin, BITNET: muhrth@db0tui11
Project ATLAS - Computer Based Tools for Qualitative Research
"Computers, like every technology, are a vehicle
for the transformation of tradition." (WINOGRAD/FLORES)ergo@netcom.UUCP (Isaac Rabinovitch) (06/07/90)
In <1990Jun4.171447.24041@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> stone@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Glenn Stone) writes: >> A faculty member on our campus has asked about hypertext software for IBM >> clones. They're interested in any type (PD, shareware, and commercial). >> They said that they'd like graphics to be included in their data. >Try: >HyperBase $99 Cogent Software (508-875-6553) >Houdini & related systems, various prices MaxThink (415-428-0104) >WildCard ? Spinnaker Corp. >Some of these are discussed in the Mar 20, 1989, issue of PC-Week; >I'm not sure if they are all still funct. I've pared down the list to those I know something about. Comments: The $100 version of HyperBase is the personal version: it can only creates Hypertexts that need a copy of Personal HyperBase to run. To create compiled versions anybody can run, you need the professional version, which costs about $400 (I think) but also allows you to add some "smarts" to your hypertext with compiled C, Cogent Prolog, etc. Both versions have a built-in Prolog interpreter, and if I ever learn Prolog I'll have to get this product and try it out. I've never used Houdini, but I own MaxThink's flagship product, MaxThink. This company is really good at applying unusual and creative ideas to software, but their user interfaces are documentation are poorly thought- out and obviously designed willy-nilly. MaxThink is one of those products you buy with high hopes and excitement for what it can do, but ends up gathering dust because you get tired of puzzling out the manual and fighting the controls. If WildCard is the same product I recently read about, it allegedly has an intriguing feature: it can import Macintosh Hypercard stacks (provided, of course you can get them onto MS-DOS media) *as-is*. If this is true, it means that the WildCard user community will just be an extension of the Hypercard user community -- always a powerful argument in favor of a program.
dano@ssc-vax.UUCP (Dan Olson) (06/08/90)
In article <12858@netcom.UUCP> ergo@netcom.UUCP (Isaac Rabinovitch) writes: >If WildCard is the same product I recently read about, it allegedly >has an intriguing feature: it can import Macintosh Hypercard stacks >(provided, of course you can get them onto MS-DOS media) *as-is*. >If this is true, it means that the WildCard user community will >just be an extension of the Hypercard user community -- always a >powerful argument in favor of a program. Another package called PLUS, which is already available on the Macintosh, reads HyperCard stacks directly and was/is supposed to be available for the PC. If it really works, it would seemingly open up a whole bunch of stackware to the PC. Only problem is, most of the good stacks are dependent on XCMDs and XFCNs. These are 68000 Mac code resources, which I can't image being runnable on a Intel based machine, unless you want to try to emulate 68000 machine code - could be kinda slow - and the Mac toolbox routines. One other hitch to these PC - HyperCard reading products, I 've heard that Apple probably won't appreciate it, since the file formats for HyperCard, I believe, are proprietary. PLUS on the Mac and SuperCard are ok, since they help sell Macs, but on the PC, that's a no-no. -- Dan Olson (UUCP ..!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!dano) "Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box." - Italian Proverb
gerry@zds-ux.UUCP (Gerry Gleason) (06/11/90)
In article <3390@ssc-vax.UUCP> dano@ssc-vax.UUCP (Dan Olson) writes: >One other hitch to these PC - HyperCard reading products, I 've heard >that Apple probably won't appreciate it, since the file formats for >HyperCard, I believe, are proprietary. PLUS on the Mac and SuperCard are >ok, since they help sell Macs, but on the PC, that's a no-no. IMHO HyperCard was a great idea, but trying to keep this type of product proprietary is not only rude, but also dooms the product to failure. I consider HyperCard a limited HyperText system, and the power of HyperText systems is in the ability to exchange information objects maintained by such a system. Having proprietary interfaces and formats severely limits the ultimate size of the community that can exchange data, and in any case no one company should ever own a universal standard. I think that people who really want and understand the value of universal hypermedia system also understand why it needs to be based on open standards. Gerry Gleason